Minister Yapa inspects BOI KIP

Minister of Enterprise Development Investment Promotion and Information and Minister of Mass Media and Communications Anura Priyadarshna Yapa, visited the Board of Investment’s Kandy Industrial Park (KIP) recently.

The Kandy Industrial Park was established in 1995. The Industrial park has a total extent of 205 Acres.

There are currently 20 factories located in the zone, which employ a total of 6,317 workers.

The enterprises located in KIP engaged in manufacturing garments, computer components, screen printing, food processing, steel products, tyres, packaging materials, Spices and herbal products, Steel Furniture, Stainless Steel Tubes. Exports earnings from the zone were valued in 2008 at Rs.10,427 million and total imports recorded as Rs.5,616 million in last year .

There are 178 BOI Projects in commercial operation in the Central Region. Sectors which are engaged in Exports, Tourism, Agriculture, Mini hydropower, Services, Dairy and Livestock breeding and other sectors.

A total of 54 projects are at various stages of implementation.

Minister Yapa chaired a meeting where many of the leading entrepreneurs in the Kandy Industrial Park participated.

This was an interactive meeting with investors at the zone and discussed some of the challenges they face.

These included issues relating to exchange rates, Labor flexibility, telecommunications, power supply, transporting goods and ground rents. Minister Yapa expressed his satisfaction in being able to hold this interactive meeting between the BOI with enterprise representatives as it provided an excellent platform to resolve issues.

After the meeting the Minister visited Tandon Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a BOI enterprise located in the KIP specializing in manufacturing computer memory chips, and Elsteel (Pvt) Ltd, which produces Steel Electrical Panels.

Minister Yapa was accompanied on this visit by Secretary, Ministry on Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, B.H.M Rathnasiri, Chairman/ Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, Dhammika Perera and senior officials of the BOI.