The Colombo Port City project will help to elevate Sri Lanka from an average USD 1.5 billion per year FDI attracting destination to a US$ 15 billion FDI yielding destination in the next five years said State Minister of Money, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal at a Special Press conference on Friday.
The Minister said that to do this Sri Lanka has to offer ‘something attractive’ for the investors and to formulate this, the government tabled a gazette on March 23 to formulate the ‘Colombo Port City Economic Commission’. The bill aims to provide for a special economic zone to establish a commission to grant registrations, licenses, authorizations and other approvals to operate a business in such economic zones.
“People are asking the government to make Sri Lanka another Singapore and the Colombo Port City will be the key to take the country to that level as well.”
Multiple petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court last week against this proposed legislation on the Colombo Port City (CPC) and depending on the outcome the government
would change the laws if required. The Minister said that one of the key points an investor looks at before investing is the ‘Doing Business Index’ which was over the 100+ mark in Sri Lanka. However, it has now been ranked 99th in the latest edition of the index, the highest-ranking achieved since 2015. It had been flagging at 114, 109, 110 and 111 marks for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
“While we are taking more steps towards bettering this which takes time we are offering a special package of concessions to woo investors for the CPC subject to countries sovereignty.”
“We need to show investors that doing business in CPC is different and easier and for this, we will also introduce a ‘One Stop Shop’ concept where approvals would be made very easy and legislation would be put in place to protect investments. He said that the directorate of the CPC Commission would be appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the President has the power to remove them as well. He also said that out of the land allocation for the government many investments would take place in it. “These include international, hospital, campuses and many Tourism related investments.”
In addition, the Minister said that not only Chinese but several investment inquiries and visits to the Port City were also done by Europeans, Russians, Qatar and other countries. “We are also in the process to woo multinationals to set up their regional offices at the Port City and want to stress that the CPC is not only for Chinese investors and open to all.”
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