Investment Destination Sri Lanka road show launch:

Best opportunity for Saudi investors - Senior Minister

Mohammed RASOOLDEEN in Dubai

Saudi industrialists have a unique opportunity to take advantage of attractive investment incentives offered by post-war Sri Lanka, a top official from Colombo said in Dubai.

Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation, Dr Sarath Amunugama, who inaugurated a road show on 'Investment Destination Sri Lanka' at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Wednesday night, said that this is the best opportunity for the investors from the Kingdom to harness the attractive opportunities available in the island for mutual benefits.

The event was organized by Heraymila Securities Limited, a subsidiary of Dubai based Heraymila Investments Limited.

Dr. Amunugama said : Saudi investors could come in to set up an oil refinery in Sri Lanka. Such a refinery, could also serve countries such as Japan, China and India. He explained that Colombo is a convenient hub in the Asian region which could link the Middle East and Far-East and other countries in the SAARC region.

'The other viable areas of investment include, tourism, infrastructure development, information technology, stock exchange and oil exploration,' he said.

'The growth opportunities in Sri Lanka are well-reflected by its post-war stock market performance: Sri Lanka was the World's top performing stock market in 2010, with an increase of 96 percent. The Colombo bourse continued the momentum into 2011 and as at May 16, 2011, is the World's third best performing market with a gain of 10.89 percent year-to-date, the minister said.

He pointed out that Sri Lanka, has rebounded successfully from decades of conflict to become the rising star of the Asian economy: GDP growth reached 8.0 per cent in 2010 from 3.5 per cent in 2009 and is estimated to remain buoyant in the coming years. It is predicted that Sri Lanka's GDP is to grow by 9.0 percent in 2011.

'After successfully eliminating terrorism from its soil in early 2009, Sri Lanka is now a politically stable nation, and perhaps one of the safest places in Asia for doing business, the minister said, adding that in recognition of this fact, international rating agencies are likely to upgrade Sri Lanka's sovereign rating (currently rated: S&P and Fitch, B+ with a stable outlook),' the Minister said.

'The IMF has recently said Sri Lanka's growth was strong, inflation was in single digits, reserves were comfortable and the economy was recovering fast. It has also said that the 2010 budget deficit target has been met and budget developments so far in 2011 are broadly in line with the IMF's expectations. Being located in a strategically advantageous geographical location, Sri Lanka has a huge potential to become a maritime, aviation, energy, knowledge and commercial regional hub, to integrate the domestic economy with the international markets, capitalizing the human as well as natural resources of the country,' Minister Amunugama said.

'Sri Lanka is also emerging as a viable destination of choice for the worldwide IT and BPO market. The IT/BPO industry now takes the position of the fifth largest exporter in Sri Lanka with strong future growth potential, recently, the London Stock Exchange acquired Millennium Information Technologies Ltd., a world renowned stock exchange software development company based in Sri Lanka.'