Malaysians to remain major investors

Malaysia is expected to remain one of the major foreign investors in Sri Lanka in five to ten years, a Sri Lankan official has said, according to a report yesterday.

Several Malaysian companies have showed interest in investing in Sri Lanka and are in talks with its Board of Investment, Malaysian newspaper the Star quoted Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Malaysia Dr. Don Ranasinghe as saying.

The sectors they are interested include tourism, infrastructure, education and financial services, he said after a seminar on Business and Investment Opportunities in Sri Lanka jointly organized by Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Sri Lanka in Malaysia Thursday.

A number of Malaysian companies have been operating business in Sri Lanka in sectors like telecommunications, agriculture and real estate development, he said. He stressed that the Sri Lankan government was attempting to encourage more Malaysian companies to invest in areas like infrastructure, tourism, education, logistical services, agriculture, manufacturing, rubber industry, business process outsourcing, the software industry and jewellery industry.

The government vowed to make Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) a main engine for its economic development and set target to lure one billion U.S. dollars in FDI in 2010 while it was 889 million U.S. dollars, he noted. Xinhua