Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port City to attract FDIs amount to US$ 15 billion in next five years
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Money, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal has reportedly stated that the Colombo Port City project will help elevate Sri Lanka from an average US$ 1.5 billion per year foreign direct investments (FDIs) to a US$ 15 billion FDI yielding destination in the next five years.
The Minister, addressing a press conference recently, has said that Sri Lanka has to offer ‘something attractive’ for the investors in order to achieve this target and it is with this intention that the government had tabled a gazette on March 23 to formulate the ‘Colombo Port City Economic Commission’.
The proposed bill reportedly aims to provide for a special economic zone to establish a commission to grant registrations, licenses, authorizations and other approvals to operate a business in such economic zones.
“People are asking the government to make Sri Lanka another Singapore and the Colombo Port City will be the key to take the country to that level as well.”
The Minister has further noted that one of the key points an investor looks at before investing is the ‘Doing Business Index’ which was over the 100+ mark in Sri Lanka. However, it has now been ranked 99th in the latest edition of the index, the highest-ranking achieved since 2015. It had been flagging at 114, 109, 110 and 111 marks for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
“While we are taking more steps towards bettering this which takes time we are offering a special package of concessions to woo investors for the CPC subject to countries sovereignty,” the State Minister has stated.
“We need to show investors that doing business in CPC is different and easier and for this, we will also introduce a ‘One Stop Shop’ concept where approvals would be made very easy and legislation would be put in place to protect investments. He said that the directorate of the CPC Commission would be appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the President has the power to remove them as well,” he has added.
Cabraal has noted that not only Chinese but several investment inquiries and visits to the Port City were also done by Europeans, Russians, Qatar and other countries.
OSL take:
The Colombo Port City project in Sri Lanka is one of the mega development programmes in the country aimed at taking it to the next level of development. Given Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country has poised it to become a business destination in the South Asian region. All these have increased Sri Lanka’s attraction as a business/investment hub. The government of Sri Lanka is also focused on further improving Sri Lanka’s ease of doing business ranking that would further boost opportunities for foreign businesses/investors in the island including the Port City.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210423/Z_4 |