The government is looking at bringing the Board of Investment ( BOI), Export Development Board (EDB) and Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation (SLECIC) together as one investment promotion agency to promote investment in a more focussed manner, said President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the opening on Mireka Tower, Havelock Town on Thursday.
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka has to become an export-oriented economy, and the country has to keep increasing foreign investments (FDI).
“One of the biggest issues we have is the number of government agencies that investors have to pass through when making an investment. You go through the BOI, Tourist Board, or some other ministry, then you go to Port City and then you come back to where you started. Then you do a second round. After about ten years, you can get the investment through. This simply won’t work.”
The President also had a dig at the Tourist Board and said that it’s an institution where people go abroad for various fairs and come back after they have had a good holiday.
“I can see some of these agencies are not pulling in one direction and have appointed a committee which is now looking at the whole structure and these investment authorities to be more productive as the whole system has broken down,” he said.
Airing future plans, the President said that the industrial estates and investment zones will be rephrased. “I think Katunayake and Biyagama are the best zones in South Asia. We are now looking at thousand-acre zones and launching them in Bingiriya, then Hambantota and Trincomalee. A separate corporation will handle these”.
He said that one of the next priorities of the Government is to develop the quality of human resources, and manpower available and look at the infrastructure. “Since there was a lot available using them to modernise agriculture is another area the government will look at.”