BOI submits two proposals to develop NE

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

The Board of Investment (BOI) has submitted two proposals to the Government with regard to the development of the north and east.

The first is a 180-day short term plan and the second a two-year long term plan, said BOI official A.M.C. Kulasekara.

He was speaking at a seminar on the opportunities in the North and East organized by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at the BMICH recently.

Kulasekara said that a number of large companies had consented to go to the eastern province to start agricultural projects. One company had requested 3,000-4,000 acres of land. He said that the Government should identify the lands and transfer them to the BOI to facilitate the investors or else it will be difficult for companies to go through the Government procedure to obtain lands. This is included in the short term plan.

The fisheries industry is another area that the BOI is focusing on under the short term plan because there is an urgent requirement to provide cool rooms, ice plants and freezer trucks. However there are a few bottlenecks to be cleared such as financial assistance for fishermen - such as loans at low interest rates, allocation of land and to develop fisheries harbours.

Dairy farms will also be set up under this proposal but there are certain pre-conditions to be satisfied, he said.

The beaches in Nilaveli and Pasikudah areas are still not utilized and the tourism sector has a very high potential to open new businesses, he said.

Referring to the short term plans for the northern province, he said that skills development is necessary for talented students in Jaffna and investors have opportunities to start training programs for IT proficiency.