Foreign direct investments:

Sri Lanka able to attract more

Harshini PERERA

Despite the economic turmoil Sri Lanka will be able to attract more foreign direct investments in the second half of this year.

Compared to last year Sri Lanka will have improved opportunities in attracting foreign direct investments compared to countries such as China and India, Board of Investment (BOI) Deputy Director General (Investment) A.M.C. Kulasekera told Daily News Business.

Sri Lanka received the highest foreign direct investments of US $ 888.94 million last year. A few developed countries in the world faced a 3-7 percent decline in foreign direct investment due to the economic recession and Sri Lanka also had to face the effects of it. The foreign direct investment is expected to increase in the second half of this year and it will be 70-75 percent of the achievement last year, he said.

Countries such as India, the UK and Germany have come forward in investing in Sri Lanka in IT and BPO sector as well as in hotels and restaurants during last year and 2009.

Among the countries that invested in Sri Lanka, China holds significant place with an investment of US $ 64.760 million from January-June, 2009. India, Malaysia, the UK and Luxembourg are the countries that invested in Sri Lanka during this year.

He said that there was a US $ 72.281 million investment in sectors of textile, wearing apparel and leather in 2008 whereas this sector recorded US $ 25.076 million from January - June this year.

Despite all the challenges faced by the BOI, it had adopted simplified methods to attract more investors into the country. Investors are assisted with quick responses and all the information on investments by BOI. Therefore, many investors came into Sri Lanka even in the midst of difficulties, he said.

Foreign Direct Investment 
of BOI Enterprises
January-June 2009* -by Sector

	Values in (US$ Mn.)

Sector		Excluding loan 	Including loan
		US$ (Mn.)	US$ (Mn.)
Manufacturing	44.001		44.681
Agriculture	0.390		0.472
Services	24.388		24.608
Infrastructure	111.313		182.867
Grand Total	180.092		252.628

(* Provisional)
Source: Monitoring Dept. -BOI