Country aims for big investments

Sri Lanka is targeting big-ticket projects that will give the economy a short-term boost and enhance export earnings, to increase post-war foreign direct investments, BOI head said on Friday. "The 2011 budget has set out the policy to going forward with a lower tax regime and an enabling investment environment," Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Jayampathi Bandaranayake said.

The Economic Development Ministry has tasked the BOI with attracting $ one billion in FDI next year, $1.5 billion in 2012 and $ two billion in 2013. To reach those targets, the BOI wants what it terms strategic investments: large-scale projects which will help the country enhance export earnings and prevent an outflow of foreign exchange, Bandaranayake said.

Thus far, the expansion of the Colombo Port, the construction of a 1,000 megawatt coal power plant in the East, a joint venture with India and the offering of licenses to prospect for oil in the offshore Mannar Basin are investments of the scale Sri Lanka wants, he said.

Reuters