by Maheen Senanayake
One Japanese shipping company will move its regional business to Sri Lanka while eight more have expressed strong interest in opening shop here, Deputy Minister of Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne said following his return to Colombo from a promotional mission in Singapore.
"In the past investments were more debt driven. What we need is a more investment driven economy which is absolutely essential for economic growth," he said. "Our promotional efforts in Singapore have had the desired effect; one company is moving its business here and eight more have expressed strong interest."
"We are emphasizing on both domestic as well as Foreign Direct investment (FDI) and we shouldn’t underestimate domestic investments. It is a very important element in our economy. What we need is an investment driven economy. And towards this end we have identified the need to boost credit appetite through an environment that creates confidence to invest," he said.
"The government is in a period of adjustment just before a general election so going around the world to drum up investments will not provide any quick fixes," he added. "This is mainly due to the fact that FDIs have a fairly long gestation period."
The Board of Investment held a pre-planned investment drive and took a mission to Singapore last week. Minister Wickramaratne accompanied the mission to strengthen the efforts of the BOI.
"That mission was well targeted and the BOI held meetings with a Japanese bank. The BOI which had an understanding with Mizuho, a Japanese bank in Singapore, was able to bring about 50 Japanese companies in Singapore where the BOI and delegation made presentations and held one-on-one meetings with the participants," he also said.
"Eight companies indicated strong desire to pursue investment in Sri Lanka," said the minister. "What we did was to offer our location as a transshipment location which effectively saves about three to five days when linking the East and West with respect to shipping,"
"We pressed that advantage home, sold that and emphasized that we can also provide warehousing facility and ‘entrepot’ facility which is a clear advantage over Singapore along with front office and regional office possibilities."
"In some of those areas, there are disadvantages. For instance Singapore’s tax structure is more favourable but apart from tax, we provide the better portfolio in other areas."
On a different note the minister has also said that "in the future we will require a bigger supply of management skills. We will need a lot more people with soft management experience and so forth."
Explaining further he said "In terms of overall investment we are looking at unblocking investments stuck in the pipeline due to a variety of reasons including negative listing and corruption."
www.island.lk
One Japanese shipping company will move its regional business to Sri Lanka while eight more have expressed strong interest in opening shop here, Deputy Minister of Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne said following his return to Colombo from a promotional mission in Singapore.
"In the past investments were more debt driven. What we need is a more investment driven economy which is absolutely essential for economic growth," he said. "Our promotional efforts in Singapore have had the desired effect; one company is moving its business here and eight more have expressed strong interest."
"We are emphasizing on both domestic as well as Foreign Direct investment (FDI) and we shouldn’t underestimate domestic investments. It is a very important element in our economy. What we need is an investment driven economy. And towards this end we have identified the need to boost credit appetite through an environment that creates confidence to invest," he said.
"The government is in a period of adjustment just before a general election so going around the world to drum up investments will not provide any quick fixes," he added. "This is mainly due to the fact that FDIs have a fairly long gestation period."
The Board of Investment held a pre-planned investment drive and took a mission to Singapore last week. Minister Wickramaratne accompanied the mission to strengthen the efforts of the BOI.
"That mission was well targeted and the BOI held meetings with a Japanese bank. The BOI which had an understanding with Mizuho, a Japanese bank in Singapore, was able to bring about 50 Japanese companies in Singapore where the BOI and delegation made presentations and held one-on-one meetings with the participants," he also said.
"Eight companies indicated strong desire to pursue investment in Sri Lanka," said the minister. "What we did was to offer our location as a transshipment location which effectively saves about three to five days when linking the East and West with respect to shipping,"
"We pressed that advantage home, sold that and emphasized that we can also provide warehousing facility and ‘entrepot’ facility which is a clear advantage over Singapore along with front office and regional office possibilities."
"In some of those areas, there are disadvantages. For instance Singapore’s tax structure is more favourable but apart from tax, we provide the better portfolio in other areas."
On a different note the minister has also said that "in the future we will require a bigger supply of management skills. We will need a lot more people with soft management experience and so forth."
Explaining further he said "In terms of overall investment we are looking at unblocking investments stuck in the pipeline due to a variety of reasons including negative listing and corruption."
www.island.lk
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