Opportunities await Thai investors in Sri Lanka

By Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, THE NATION (Published on June 25, 2009)

Since the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, the country has become an attractive destination for foreign investors from around the world to explore business and investment opportunities.

The Thai-Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce, in association with the Sri Lankan Board of Investment (BoI) and the Sri Lankan Embassy, hosted an investment forum entitled "Emerging Peace and Business Opportunities in Sri Lanka" on Monday, to explain that country's new business climate.

"Sri Lanka is like a virgin land for investors, and the time to invest in Sri Lanka is right now," said Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Sri Lanka's enterprise-development, investment-promotion and media minister.

He said many business opportunities awaited Thai investors. The target sectors for Thailand include textiles and garments, gems and jewellery, food processing, rubber-based products, agricultural products, business-process outsourcing and tourism.

Investors in Sri Lanka can also enjoy special tariff preferences when using the country to enter markets in India, Pakistan and Europe, he said.
Sri Lanka is the perfect gateway to South Asia. It is a regional trading hub, with Colombo the most important port in South Asia, with cargo trans-shipments accounting for 70 per cent of traffic.

"Thailand is our third-largest investor in Southeast Asia, after Malaysia and Singapore. Therefore, we are here to tell Thai investors how attractive we are to foreign investors. We are confident that the investment from those two countries [Malaysia and Singapore] will increase significantly over a period of time," said Duminda Ariyasinghe, executive director of the Sri Lankan BoI.

Thai investment in Sri Lanka is worth US$13 million (Bt444 million) from three projects. An inflow of foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka has increased continuously, from $734 million in 2007 to $889 million last year and an estimated $1 billion this year, and this despite the global economic crisis, he said.

Statistics from the Sri Lankan Board of Investment show Malaysia is the country's largest foreign investor, followed by India, the Netherlands, the UK and Luxembourg.