Dr. Lakshman Jayaweera new head of BOI

Dr. Lakshman Jayaweera has been appointed as Chairman/ Director General BOI.

DrJayaweera’s appointment as Chairman/ Director General of the BOI by President Mahinda Rajapaksa comes at a crucial juncture of time when Sri Lanka, having emerged from three decades of conflict in 2009, needs to effectively promotes investment to achieve the goals set by the Government for the BOI.

This will pave the way to a new promotional strategy on FDI attraction which will implement the current goals which take into account global changes.

Among these goals are the development of a number of thrust sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, IT and IT enabled services, infrastructure and other vital areas. Furthermore, the tourism sector, Sri Lanka is seeking large scale and strategic investments to boost her infrastructure. Furthermore, import substitution of a number of products such as cement, tyres and dairy products through investment are also priorities of the BOI.

The appointment of a BOI Chairman with an overseas private sector background will help Sri Lanka attract more investments at a time when global inflows of FDI have fallen, but where developed economies are expected to recover partly from the global recession.

Dr. Jayaweera, was a Sydney based chemical engineer who built a leading resource recovery and chemical company called HydroMet Corporation Ltd to be an industry leader.Dr. Jayaweera possesses over 35 years of experience in worldwide corporate and business ventures, resource development, alternative energy, environmental and chemical sector in Australia and elsewhere.

Dr Jayaweera who held a senior position with the mining giant Rio Tinto Corporation, launched HydroMet in 1987. He stepped down from HydroMet (listed in the Australian Securities Exchange, ASX) last May after serving the company in a succession of key roles for over 25 years, including Controlling Share Holder, Founder Director and Chairman, following the successful takeover bid of the company by a foreign party and divesting his shareholding to the same party.

The BOI which is tasked with attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), completes 35 years of existence in 2013.

BOI companies employ over 450,000 workers and account for nearly 60% of Sri Lankan exports and 80% of the country’s industrial exports. With the ending of the nearly three decade old civil conflict, the BOI has been playing a crucial role in the attraction of investments to sectors such as Tourism, Infrastructure, Knowledge Services, Manufacturing and Agriculture. Dr Jayaweera’s in depth global experience in working with multi-nationals and in building a successful business will be a tremendous asset to the BOI as it pursues aggressive targets in the highly competitive global battle for attracting FDI.

Dr Jayaweera holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney and a Master of Science in Chemistry & Chemical Engineering (First Class) from the Peoples’ Friendship University, Moscow, USSR.