BoI investment promotion mission to Korea

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

INVESTMENT MISSION: The Board of Investment (BoI) will organise an investment promotion mission to Korea, this month.

Director of BoI Dilip Samarasinghe told Daily News this trade mission will be targeting all the business segments. Korea was the fifth largest investor to invest in Sri Lanka in 2004 and the total investment was Rs. 2 billion. Korea has invested in textile and other ventures such as electrical items in Sri Lanka.

However BoI is optimistic on gaining more investments to Sri Lanka through this investment promotional mission.

This year BoI has organised business promotion missions to UK, France and Norway. According to the BoI, the UK mission was a very successful mission for Sri Lanka.

This year Malaysia might be the largest investor in Sri Lanka since Malasiya has invested heavily in Sri Lanka, Samarasinghe said.

In 2004, the largest foreign direct investor was Singapore with an investment of Rs. 21.6 billion. Indian investments accounted at Rs. 13.8 billion and was the second largest foreign investor of the country. US investments are recorded at Rs. 11 billion and UK investments Rs. 7.7 billion in 2004. Chinese investments were reported as Rs. 671 million

In 2004, 49% of the total investments was by the local investors and 24% by the foreign direct investors. The balance investments were made by the local and foreign partnerships.