Main factors hindering the improvement of the business climate in Sri Lanka have been the high transaction costs in complying with regulations and a dense web of business regulations which discourage new entrants to the market, said Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama.
He was addressing the ‘Sri Lanka means Business’ event at Temple Trees on Monday.
The minister said that as a result, these factors have obstructed enterprises to grow, undermined productivity, limited investments and limited access to finance.
“There have been efforts to introduce investment climate reforms by successive governments; however, these efforts were not sufficiently coordinated, lacked strategic prioritization and institutional mechanisms to support such reforms.”
The minister assured that this time around the government is firm to introduce reforms and the roadmap which was launched by Prime Minister serves as a testament from government towards providing a better business environment that is more conducive to private sector development.
“There will be challenges. Sri Lanka is competing with several regional counterparts to attract this investment,” he opined
“We are not limiting our commitment to improving the business environment focusing on the areas covered in the Doing Business report but hope to go beyond this to provide opportunities for the people of Sri Lanka to better their prospects. (SS)
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