Sri Lanka invites Malaysian investors
Sri Lanka today enjoys a degree of political stability which has no
parallel at any other time in its post-independence history, said Export
Development and International Trade Minister and Posts and
Telecommunication Acting Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris.
He was addressing the annual business awards ceremony of the Sri
Lanka-Malaysia Business Council at the Hilton Hotel recently.
Prof. Peiris and Malaysian High Commissioner Rosli Ismail were the
Chief Guests on the occasion.
The results of all elections held in different regions of the island
over the past eight months indicate an overwhelming national consensus
which is a powerful stimulus to trade and investment, the Minister said.
The most prominent feature of the outcome of the Uva Provincial
Council election is the unprecedented support which the Government has
received from all sections of the community, demonstrating that this
emphatic endorsement cuts across all frontiers of ethnicity, religious
belief and cultural background.
It is an achievement of which the Government is legitimately proud,
Prof. Peiris said. “We are today in a situation in which stability is
decisively enhanced not only by the eradication of terrorism from Sri
Lankan soil but also by far-reaching action which has begun to be taken
for the dismantling of the international financial network of the LTTE,”
he said.
The facility which has been successfully negotiated with the
International Monetary Fund increases significantly the Government’s
capability to maintain fiscal stability both domestically and in
the-external environment, in relation to foreign reserves, the exchange
rate and the interest rate.
The experience of Sri Lanka and Malaysia highlights the reality that
there are no universal solutions to national economic issues - that
there is no size which fits all. During the administration of former
Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia declined to
adopt the traditional prescriptions offered by the IMF Managing Director
Michel Comdessus, at that time, and achieved rapid recovery by resorting
to home-grown solutions. The social and cultural circumstances of the
country in question are of overriding importance in this regard,
Minister Peiris said.
One of the most encouraging aspects of the trade and investment
relationship between Sri Lanka and Malaysia is that, while Malaysia is
one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka, this is no longer a one-way
relationship.
Sri Lankan companies such as Carsons, Mackwoods, Aitken Spence and
Richard Pieries and Co. have invested substantially in palm oil
plantations in Malaysia, and Malaysian companies like Dialog and Maxeis
have assumed the stature of market leaders in Sri Lanka, he said.
“There has come into being in Sri Lanka today an environment in which
it is possible to derive the fullest benefit from our country’s unique
potential, in terms of the quality of its human resources,” he said.
As a landmark achievement in this field, Prof. Peiris referred to the
Uva-Wellassa University, built at a cost of Rs. 2 billion, which offers
demand driven courses of study, concentrating on addition of value to
the nation’s natural resources, and has succeeded in securing lucrative
employment for the vast majority of its first batch of graduating
students.
Minister Peiris invited Malaysian investors to take advantage of the
extensive opportunities available, especially in the Eastern Province of
Sri Lanka, in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and tourism. He dealt
with the benefits accruing to investors from the mechanisms of the Board
of Investment, and the vistas of opportunity which have opened bilateral
trade relationships with the Indian sub-continent.
Sri Lanka-Malaysia Business Council President Kevin de Silva and
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dr. Anura Ekanayaka were also
present. |