Sri Lanka showcases multi-million dollar urban development projects open for investments
Sri Lanka’s State Minister for Urban Development and Housing, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa has reportedly showcased an impressive array of multi-million dollar socio-economic investment and urban development projects outside Colombo.
The State Minister has made this presentation at the recently concluded Sri Lanka Investment Forum.
The presentation had focused on promoting to investors attractive opportunities in Sri Lanka that are not confined to the Colombo Port City alone.
“We believe that urbanisation will bring about a range of interconnected investment opportunities in environmental, physical and societal contexts. This includes building of airports, ports, road and rail networks, bridges, water and sewerage systems, waste management systems, telecommunications networks, grids of electricity and buildings of all sorts,” Godahewa has been quoted as saying at the Forum.
In that context, the State Minister has reportedly told over thousands of virtual attendees of the Forum that the government of Sri Lanka had introduced a system of ‘C-shaped Economic Corridors’ in the national policy framework, connecting ports and airports and integrating all existing and proposed business zones together, local media reports stated.
“We will develop Colombo, Hambantota, Jaffna, and Trincomalee as four main commercial cities and establish them to be connecting centres of the national and international network, as they consist of ports and airports of Sri Lanka,” Godahewa has said.
He has added that Kandy, Anuradhapura, Gampaha, Ratnapura, Galle, Badulla, Mannar, Batticaloa, and Kurunegala have also been identified as cities that will be developed as national cities in the master plan mainly because of their historical, social and economic value.
Cities such as Puttalam, Negombo, Pottuvil, Dambulla, Matara, Nuwara Eliya and Buttala will be developed as connecting cities to the four multi-dimensional commercial cities and national cities, Godahewa has further noted.
According to him, the integration of all major cities, townships and business zones would lead to a local ‘agro industrialisation’ outcome and ensure value-added production processes, which could be used to improve our global market share.
“We will develop a 100,000 km alternative road system to facilitate a higher level of access to main roads and expressways, while all internal and rural access roads will be improved to facilitate access to the alternative road system,” Godahewa has said.
He added that Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority (UDA) had therefore developed a road map that consists of three main development clusters, namely Real Estate and Townships, Tourism and Leisure, and Logistics and Transportation Hubs, to identify and address such demands.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s ongoing development programme as well as the ambitious urban development programme would take the country to the next level of development. The country has placed much emphasis on urban development given that Sri Lanka is fast becoming a business hub in the South Asian region given it’s geographical positioning in the Indian ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country. All these have expanded business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka making it the ideal business destination for foreign businesses/investors.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210615/Z_3 |