Minister of Tourism and Aviation and Industrial Exports, Prasanna Ranatunga said that he would take the recent Treasury directive of banning the importing of garbage for reprocessing and re-export very seriously.
This is in the aftermath of certain corporate being detected and accused guilty of such an illegality.
The Minister was of the view that the BOI too has to be more active in attracting investors of high esteem. Foreign investors also lost confidence in Sri Lanka due to short sighted economic policies and lack of political stability. “Due to this FDIs hit a major tumbling block and some of the BOI agreements that were signed never took off.”
There were also bogus eye wash BOI agreements such as the much talked about Volkswagen factory in Kurunegala that were only confined to an opening ceremony where top VIP’s participated. The much publicized would be BOI industrial park in Horana for Thai and Japanese investors also never took off. Similar feat was seen for the proposed Kurunegala BOI Industrial Park.
The Minister pointed out that he had received many complaints from foreign investors with regard to the inefficiency and delays at the BOI. “We have to change this culture immediately and it is our duty to address investors’ needs without any delay,” the Minister added.
Efficiency and punctuality must be enhanced at the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) to facilitate foreign investors who wish to invest on various projects in Sri Lanka without any delay.”
He also that the future of both the National Carrier SriLankan Airlines and now folded up regional carrier Mihin Air were still unknown and said that he was awaiting till President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued the Gazette notification which would specifically mention where the two airlines belonged.
“There was a lot of ambiguity as to where the two airlines belonged. There was a time that the two airlines were coming under the aegis of Ministry of Civil Aviation and there was another time that it came under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury. We would know where we stand after the gazette is issued, the Minister told the Daily News Business.
“If these two airlines come under my Ministry, we will “pilot” our strategies accordingly,” he said.
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