Shangri-La deal very transparent:

Online visa to spur more travel

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The ‘visa on arrival policy’ will have a major positive impact on tourism and will help to increase tourist arrivals.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa said citizens of some countries need ‘exit visas’ and the Sri Lankan ‘Visa’ policy will enable them to obtain a visa from home and ‘leave the country’.

He explained that in addition residents of some countries are not granted visas on arrival to Sri Lanka and this will enable to woo them to Sri Lanka as well.

He said this is a very simple process and it should be called visa from home.

Asked how it would be implemented for Indian arrivals as their internet penetration is low, he said that it could be done through the ‘travel agent’.

He said that since visa could be obtained from home it will have a major positive impact on Chinese arrivals.

‘We are not completely doing away with the ‘on arrival’ policy. Both systems would be in place,’ he stressed.

Commenting on the proposed hotel projects of Shangri-La and Chinese CATIC at Galle Face, he said that the two deals were very transparent.

‘We obtained US$ 12.5 million for the Shangri-La deal and US$ 13.6 m from the next. We hope the third investor from India will bring in more value for this prime property at the former Army Headquarters.’

Shangri-La will invest US$ 281 million for the project.

The Minister said this project spreads across 47 acres and they will have a green belt and an art gallery project at the former Army Hospital in this area.

Colombo is to be projected as a business hub in the region and for this purpose more five star hotels and city hotels are needed.

”This is the main reason we decided to relocate the Army Headquarters and convert the area into a tourism zone”.

Minister Rajapaksa said the investment made by Shangri-La Hotels helped to rebuild investor confidence to Sri Lanka and now they are in a batter ‘bargaining position’ to lease the remaining lands.

“When Shangri-La wanted to invest in Sri Lanka we welcomed them with open arms as their presence will stimulate FDI.”

The Minister explained that awarding the land to the investor was done in a ‘hurry’ as red tape would have driven away Shangri-La to another country.

“However, I want to stress that the deal was very transparent and it did receive Cabinet sub committee approval.

The payment for the land was deposited with the Treasury.

”We cannot call for tenders like for the construction of a road and ‘unwanted’ delays would have driven away Shangri-La. He said that these investments were made possible due to peace. Shangri-La in addition has also decided to invest in Habantota and they have also found a suitable land to build this five star resort. Expressing his views on Passikuda resort he said 56 acres were leased out to investors to build hotels and already one hotel (Malu Malu) is opened. This project was first proposed in 1965 by then Minister of Tourism J R Jayewardene. Some hotels too were built but due to cyclone, tsunami and LTTE terror they folded up. Some of them have now come back,” he said.