A Thailand based infrastructure company famous for setting up Economic Zones is planning to set up a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Bandaragama, said Deputy Director General, Board of Investments of Sri Lanka Dumunda Ariyasinghe.
Speaking at the 37th annual general meeting of the Free Trade Zone Manufactures Association (FTZMA) in Katunayake last Friday he said that they have already began discussions with this company. “We met senior officials from this company when when BOI officials were in Thailand and they will now visit Sri Lanka soon,” he said.
Ariyasinghe said that the company in Thailand has set up many Free Trade Zones all over the world and were planning to open another in Myanmar. But due to red tape they have now decided to halt that operation. It’s this investment that we want to bring to Sri Lanka,” he said.
He added that the Thai company first obtains the land from the government on a long term lease and then invest on the infrastructure. “The biggest advantage of this project is that when the company completes the infrastructure and is ready to open they would bring in around 25 investors with them creation over 5,000 employment opportunities from the day the zone is opened.”
Ariyasinghe said when the zone opens there would be international standard infrastructure available. In addition there would be over 20 foreign investors doing projects. “These factors will give investor confidence for more international investors to set up factories there.”
He said that the government is now in the process of identifying around 400 acres for this project in the Bandaragama area.
Meanwhile addressing another issue that was brought up at the AGM with regard to the reintroduction of SVAT he said that he would set up a meeting with Minister of Finance to talk about this.
“I am now made aware that with the re-introduction of SVAT around 16% export money would be retained by Customs and this would deprive them of working capital and this is an issue that needs to be discussed again.”
The Director General said that though the FDI were low the future looks very bright as several top foreign investors are now keen to set up business in Sri Lanka soon. “The response we had from our overseas marketing campaigns were positive,” he added.
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