Sri Lanka eyes Saudi Arabian investments to modernize tourism industry
The Morning: Sri Lanka is looking for Saudi investment to modernize its tourism and other sectors, top officials in Colombo have said following an official visit of Saudi Economy and Planning Minister Faisal Al-Ibrahim.
Al-Ibrahim was in the Sri Lankan capital on 27 November, where he met President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Ali Sabry to discuss ways to strengthen economic ties.
“President Ranil Wickremesinghe further highlighted that the tourism and agriculture sectors were areas open to greater investment, as the country is committed to modernizing these domains,” the Presidential Secretariat said in a statement.
Tourism and agriculture are key industries for Sri Lanka, accounting for about 12% and 7% of its 2019 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively. The country has been working to revive its crisis-hit economy following a severe financial crisis that drove the country to bankruptcy last year.
Al-Ibrahim said that he was honored to meet Wickremesinghe.
“We discussed both countries’ ambitions and transformation journeys as well as strengthening our bilateral economic ties and trade and investment growth opportunities,” Al-Ibrahim wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
During Al-Ibrahim’s meeting with Sabry, the two officials discussed Saudi investment, as well as manpower and tourism cooperation, the Foreign Minister said.
“We also discussed (ways) to improve the tourism traffic between the two countries and further strengthen people-to-people contact. We also discussed the possibility of Saudia Airlines commencing direct flights to Colombo,” Sabry had told Arab News.
“We decided to explore possibilities of Saudi investment in Sri Lanka and opportunities for the Sri Lankans for further skilled employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia in its planned construction boom,” he said, alluding to the Kingdom’s various megaprojects under Vision 2030.
“All in all, we had a very productive discussion and agreed to have a clear plan to continue our cooperation,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka have expanded ties in the past year. They agreed to broaden their political consultation following their first joint committee meeting in May and earlier this year launched a new employment scheme aimed at boosting Colombo’s manpower exports to the Kingdom.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country with a steady growth in tourist arrivals to the country. The local tourism authorities are committed to further promoting Sri Lanka tourism in new tourist source markets while also exploring new tourist concepts for the country. All these activities in the tourism industry have resulted in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in the industry, especially in the leisure and hospitality sectors as well as in the development of supplementary infrastructure facilities required by the expanding industry. The growing business potential in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has attracted the attention of many international leisure and hospitality brands to enter the local industry. Foreign businesses/investors could explore the expanding opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry while also looking at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses engaged in the industry with the aim of further expansion.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20231204/Z_4 |