South Korea to invest in Hambantota IT Park

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Korean President Lee Myung-Bak agreed to provide his country's assistance to the Information Technology Park currently being built in Hambantota.

This was subsequent to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President Mahinda Rajapaksa holding a summit at the official residence of the Korean President in Seoul to discuss ways to strengthen economic and other cooperation between the two countries.

“More than 20,000 Sri Lankan employees are currently contributing to the economy of South Korea and the bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and Korea would be further strengthened by the visit of President Rajapaksa,” the Korean President said.

Sri Lanka today is able to provide a robust new investment destination as a frontier country to the rest of the world said President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

President Rajapaksa who is in Korea on a four-day official visit speaking to four Korean conglomerates explained the current situation in Sri Lanka and the vast opportunities for trade, investments and tourism for Korean companies in the country.

The President invited Korean investors to make use of the investment opportunities available in the country and also pointed out the possibility of entering into a free trade agreement between the two countries as Sri Lanka's exports to Korea has grown up to US $ 46 million last year.

“Sri Lankan economy grew by 8.3 percent in 2011, following an 8 percent growth in 2010. This was the first time that Sri Lanka recorded an economic growth over 8 per cent in two consecutive years.

“This achievement is all the more significant because, it was recorded at a time when many countries in the world had been affected by the serious effects of the euro zone crisis and other macro economic problems, which has pulled back their economies and drastically damaged their financial systems.

“In that regard, let me also assure you that all our Sri Lankan economic authorities are working hard to deliver such a sound macro platform and a competitive environment so that all economic stakeholders in our nation would continue to have confidence in our economy and country.

“The main areas in which we are looking forward in welcoming new investments are in the fields of infrastructure, port related activities, aviation services, knowledge based industries, tourism and leisure industry and commercial services,” he said.

“In all these investment decisions, our Board of Investment will be able to assist you in choosing and implementing your projects and we therefore, invite you to make use of these opportunities.

“Also to give you peace of mind, we will maintain our investor protection policies, which will ensure that those who invest in our country would have their investments protected by law.”The President added “the government would implement the required policies so that you could benefit by continuous sound macro fundamentals that would support the growth momentum and stability of our nation.”