Sri Lanka’s BOI and Austrade partner on FDI promotion workshop
Newswire: The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) has hosted a knowledge‑sharing workshop with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), focusing on strategies for attracting and promoting Foreign Direct Investment. The session forms part of the bilateral Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement (TIFA) Action Plan between Sri Lanka and Australia.The workshop outlined Austrade’s approach to productive FDI, its priority sectors, and investor engagement methods, offering practical insights to inform BOI’s evolving investment attraction strategy.Delivering the keynote address, Australian High Commissioner Mathew Duckworth emphasized Sri Lanka’s competitive advantages: “The way that Sri Lanka can maximize this is by ensuring you have domestic settings that will attract the investment… to harness the value from your skilled workforce and strategic location.”The programme was conducted by Andrew Carter, Austrade’s Trade and Investment Commissioner, with welcome remarks by BOI Chairman Duminda Hulangamuwa, who underscored the importance of deepening bilateral cooperation on investment promotion.Austrade, recognized globally as a leading investment promotion agency, shared best practices on sectoral targeting, investor lifecycle management, branding, and digital enablers. Sessions covered pipeline management, case studies from Austrade’s India Investment Team, and inter‑agency coordination frameworks involving Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).The workshop is expected to strengthen BOI’s institutional capacity to engage with quality investments, enhance sector‑specific promotion, and inform value proposition briefs for Sri Lanka’s mineral and education sectors.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka is increasingly positioning itself as an emerging investment destination in the Indian Ocean, with growing business/investment opportunities for Australian businesses across sectors ranging from infrastructure and logistics to tourism, renewable energy, agriculture and technology. The potential was highlighted at a recent knowledge-sharing workshop hosted by the BOI with Austrade, held under the Sri Lanka-Australia Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement (TIFA) Action Plan. The session focused on strategies to attract productive FDI, with Austrade sharing its approach to priority sectors, investor engagement and investment promotion. The exchange comes as Sri Lanka seeks to move beyond traditional investment models and attract capital that can generate jobs, exports, technology transfer and stronger links with global value chains. Australian High Commissioner Duckworth pointed to Sri Lanka’s skilled workforce and strategic location as key advantages that could be leveraged to attract greater investment, provided the country continues improving its domestic business environment. For Australian investors, Sri Lanka offers access not only to a relatively skilled workforce and a strategic Indian Ocean location, but also to a market undergoing post-crisis economic restructuring and infrastructure development. Business/investment opportunities are emerging in areas such as renewable energy, port and logistics services, tourism, agribusiness, manufacturing, digital services and infrastructure. The growing engagement between BOI and Austrade signals an effort to translate these opportunities into deeper commercial ties. With Sri Lanka seeking more FDI to support economic growth and Australian businesses looking for new markets in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, the two countries have considerable scope to expand investment flows. BOI Chairman Hulangamuwa said strengthening bilateral cooperation on investment promotion would be important, while Austrade Trade and Investment Commissioner Andrew Carter led the workshop.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20260904Z_1 |