BOI approves 119 projects, cuts down redtape

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

NEW PROJECTS: The BOI approved 119 proposed projects with a total investment of Rs 209 billion last week by accelerating their process of granting BOI approvals for the proposed projects.

Speaking on the occasion to hand over letters of BOI approval for these projects Minister of Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development Dr. Sarath Amunugama said that BOI now provides approval for proposed projects within a short period of time.

Earlier granting approval for projects took more than six months and this has been a major barrier for more investments in the country.

BOI has accelerated the approval process, and now investors need to accelerate their implementation process of these projects, he said.

BOI has made arrangements to provide approval for proposed projects within one day.

“The Board has also reduced the number of forms that need to be filled when obtaining BOI approvals for the convenience of investors,” Dr. Amunmugama said.

The Minister said in India if investors are unable to implement the projects within a certain period of time the agreements they have entered into with the authorities will be cancelled automatically.

These 119 projects will provide 27000 direct job opportunities in the country.

The highest number of approvals was granted for the housing and property development projects, which will bring Rs 63861.8 million of investment to the country.

The highest investments of Rs 103,450 million will flow through three power generation projects.

BOI also granted approval for a proposed airline services project with a Rs 13128 million of investment.

There are 18 proposed projects in the hotel and leisure sector with a total investment of Rs 7084.9 million. Approval has also been granted for the projects in IT, apparel, health, education, agriculture and warehousing.