12 February 2011

Sri Lanka Targets $1bn FDI in 2011 Led by a Booming Leisure Sector - Chairman BOI

11th February 2011, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is expecting more than a billion US dollars in foreign direct investments in 2011 led by a booming leisure sector, after the end of a three decade war made the country more attractive, an official said.

"Our expectations (for 2011) are well over a billion (US dollars)," Board of Investment chief Jayampathy Bandaranayake said.

A three decade war ended in 2010 but actual FDI disbursements were 'very close to' 2009, he said. In 2009 when the intensity of the conflict reached its height foreign direct investments fell to 384 million dollars.

In the first quarter of 2010 there was a 30 percent drop in FDI due to a series of elections in the island, Bandaranayake said.

The International Monetary Fund earlier forecast at least 725 million US dollars of FDI this year.

On Friday Bandaranayake signed a 150 million US dollar investment agreement with Dialog Axiata which is expected to invest the money in expanding its network over the next two years.

Dialog had become the top foreign investor in the country clocking up a billion US dollars by December 30, and the latest investment will push it to 1.2 billion dollars, officials said.

BOI director Duminda Ariyasinghe said most of the cash would come into leisure and infrastructure.

Though information technology and business process outsourcing was generating high quality jobs and attracting a lot of interest the actual dollar values were smaller, he said.

Several high profile foreign leisure and property investments have already been announced, including 500 million dollar projects by Hong Kong based Shangri La and a CATIC, a Chinese state firm.

The two firms also will spend 500 million US dollars to buy state land.

Related Info :
Sri Lanka Dialog Invests $150mn on Fibre & Broadband Network Expansion

Shangri La Will Position Sri Lanka as a Prime Tourist Destination – Greg Dogan, Shangri La President & CEO

Chinese Company to Build Another Luxury Hotel and Shopping Complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka

BOI to Continue but Will Promote Mega Projects. To Advertise Land & Abandoned Factories Shortly

1 comment:

  1. Sri Lanka FDI:

    2004: USD 234 mn
    2005: USD 287 mn
    2006: USD 604 mn
    2007: USD 734 mn
    2008: USD 889 mn
    2009: USD 602 mn
    2010: USD 375 mn
    2011: USD 1,000 (Projected)

    These are the figures I gleaned from some articles even though there are some discrepancies. Especially 2010 figure that had been contested by BOI earlier. (M. A. Perera)

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