25 November 2023 03:54 am Views - 224
Dilum Amunugama
Sri Lanka has seen foreign direct investment (FDI) projects increase by 122 percent this year so far, in comparison to 2022, the Investment Promotions Ministry said.
The Board of Investment (BOI), the apex investment promotions agency, has achieved US $ 1.8 billion in total investments for the first 11 months of the year, out of which US $ 1.5 billion are FDI projects.
“The economy will continue to contract in 2023 but it was better than -7.8 in 2022. In 2023, it has forecasted a -2.0
negative growth.
It is an arduous task to attract FDI amidst the economic contraction. Yet, in the year-on-year (YoY) comparison, the BOI has achieved this, despite the external and internal setbacks,” said State Minister Dilum Amunugama, addressing a press conference yesterday.
The significant increase in projects is due to the high value of investments in the energy sector.
Amunugama shared that the investments such as Adani Corporation, Sinopec and RM Parks with Shell and further, ITC, BPO, tourism and manufacturing are the sectors getting more investments.
Meanwhile, it is countries such as China, India, the US, HK, the UAE, France, Korea, Germany and Singapore that have contributed to the investments during 2023.
While the FDI investments expanded, local investments have contracted, the provisional data from the BOI showed.
Local investments for January 01 to November 23 totalled US $ 258 million, which is a contraction of 77 percent when compared with the corresponding period in 2022. The January 01 to November 23 period in 2022 saw local investments amounting to US $ 1.1 billion.