Sri Lanka's foreign direct investments rose 49 percent in the first nine months of the year from the same period a year earlier to $1.3 billion, the state-run Board of Investment said on Friday. Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the country was making all efforts to reach this year's investment goal of $2 billion.
"We are trying our best to reach the target," Abeywardena told reporters in Colombo. Sri Lanka failed to meet that target for two years in a row. The $67 billion economy attracted $870 million in FDI in the first nine months of last year, central bank data showed. The island nation had expected higher FDI after a nearly three-decade long war that ended in May 2009.
But the country's investment ambitions have been hampered by inconsistent policies, investor complaints about corruption and lack of good governance, as well as the government's failure to address human rights violations in line with the United Nations resolutions.
"Sri Lanka does not sell land outright for foreigners. So there are some delays in FDIs. In some countries there is no problem in buying land and houses for foreign investors unlike in Sri Lanka. But still we are doing well in FDI," he said. Abeywardena said Honk Kong-based Shangri-La Asia, which has already committed $500 million FDI for two hotel projects, will invest another $250 million in a housing complex with a shopping mall in capital Colombo in the near future. Sri Lanka drew a record $1.42 billion in 2013, up 6 percent from 2012, central bank data showed.
Comments
Comments are closed.