Sri Lanka’s export sector is resilient in face of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 and the country’s export value in 2020 equals with the exports figures of 2019 in spite of unprecedented economic down turn in the world, State Minister D. V. Chanaka said at the opening of a fire unit at the Wagawatte Export Processing Zone on Friday.
He said that investors and the corporate giants faced numerous challenges due to covid 19 Pandemic.
“These companies jointly with the BOI succeeded in overcoming numerous challenges as the Covid 19 pandemic impacted the export sector badly,” he said
D V Chanaka said that a novel approach to mitigate the impact on Covid 19 helped make these achievements.
He also drew the attention of the public how the country was turned into a virtual workshop by the government that was in power before 2015 .
“Development activities were taking place in every nook and corner of the country before 2014 and the then government was able to lay foundation for a massive development and investment drive in the country,” he said
“Sri Lanka built an international harbor, airport and a road network in 2014 with an objective of spurring the investment and the economy,” he said
.The State Minister said that the Export Processing Zones are open for investors after developing infrastructure facilities of such zones and this process takes more than two years.
Chanaka said that the government has put in place a novel mechanism through which infrastructure development activities begin with the receipt of environment approval for this particular zone.
“The investors aspiring to make investment will also be given an opportunity to start preliminary works while infrastructure development is in progress. By the time the development of infrastructure facilities of the particular zone is complete, the investors can commence commercial operations”, he said
The State Minister said that the government has focused on the development of local industries and more assistance will be given to the entrepreneurs in the country. Many countries in the world saw the rays of development after they started giving hands to their entrepreneurs to start businesses, he said
Board of Investment Chairman Sanjaya Mohottala and Managing Director of Ferentino Pvt Limited and Chairman of Ceylon Steel Corporation Nandana Lokuwithana were present
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