BOI inked US$ 3. 4 bn deals in ‘12
Shirajiv Sirimane
The Board of Investment signed agreements to the tune of over US $
3.4 billion worth foreign direct investments in 2012, which was an all
time record.
The new Minister of Economic Development, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane,
said that in the previous year, a sum of over US $ 1.2 billion worth BOI
projects had been implemented. The main areas that attracted investments
were services and industry, followed by Agriculture.
He said that this year their target was to surpass the US$ 2 billion
figure and he was confident of achieving this task.
Since the creating of the BOI in 1978, it had yielded US$ 1,026
million FDI’s until 1994 and the 1995 to 2005 period saw Sri Lanka
attracting US$ 1,752 million.
The two new Ministers, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane
and Frazier Mustapha after taking office yesterday.
Picture by Ranjith Askanka |
The 2005 to 2012 period saw Sri Lanka receiving US$ 5,026 million
investments, surpassing all other previous investment figures.
The minister said that the government on their part, had cleared all
road blocks and have provided the much needed infrastructure to woo
investors.
He said that while appointing a committee from the private sector to
advice on investment issues, he would have monthly meetings with
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in
a bid to speedup clearing of red tape.
He said that this year they would focus on the BPO and KPO sectors
and another key area would be on Education.
“Every year, over 12,000 students travel overseas for education,
spending over US$ 400 million. We are encouraging foreign universities
to set up universities in Sri Lanka.”
He said that there was also tremendous opportunities to attract over
10, 000 Pakistani students going for overseas education annually.
Already one of the leading British universities, Lancashire and
Singapore’s number one University, Raffles would be setting up
universities in Mirigama and Negombo.
It was also disclosed that the agreement for the Four Season hotels
would be signed next week, while leading department stores in the world
based in Singapore, Mustafa will open a hotel cum shopping complex this
year.
The minister also said that he was lucky to have Frazier Mustapha
(PC) as his deputy, who would not only help to iron out legal issues,
but would also help promote investments from the Gulf. The new Secretary
to the Minister of Investments, M. M. C. Ferdinado, said that the main
aim of creating the BOI in the early stages, was to create employment.
“However, today the main aim was to attract investments and also help
increase exports,” he said. |