Yesterday, the
government said it would reintroduce tax concessions to boost FDIs, as well as
renegotiate all prevailing and proposed bilateral and investment agreements, some
of which may take place after the Elections. "We will construct Sri Lanka
to be relatively advantageous for any investor and bring back tax concessions
for investors looking into the country's investment opportunities,"
Minister of State Investment Promotion Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters.
He said they
hoped to renegotiate all post-General Election bilateral agreements next year.
The contracts include the Hambantota Port, deal with China, the Singapore Free
Trade Agreement (FTA), the India Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement
(ETCA), and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact with the US.
"We have
made numerous statements and representations to Parliament on some of the
aspects of these treaties that were severely detrimental to Sri Lanka. We need
to reconsider and renegotiate all of these, and I hope that the global
community will look at it in the right determination, and maybe turn it around
to be a win-win deal that helps all countries, "he added.
The State
Minister noted that regardless of the size of the economy, the parties involves
must assign the same status to any agreement signed between two sovereign
nations, and it must be a win-win treaty.
Reiterating that
trade agreements are not wrong instruments, he said the government would pursue
the FTA with China following next year's general election while pointing out
that FTAs are an excellent vehicle for attracting much-needed foreign exchange
to the economy. However, government FTAs must treat professionally.
He noted that
there are no quantified goals given to the Ministry to achieve in the next four
months. Further, he said the primary focus during this time is to rationalise
investments and the enablement process to attract FDIs and lay a robust
foundation to ensure long-term investment development over the next five to ten
years.
He said,
however, the government was keen to attract individual foreign investment
(FIIs) in the short term through the stock market. The government will also
explore international and local private-public partnerships (PPPs) for
infrastructure projects, the State Minister said.
Ensuring the
timely announcement of the new Investment Board (BOI) officials, the Minister
of State said that the Ministry's ease of doing business would be a crucial
focus. He said that the ease of doing business is to ensure that BOI operates
as a one-stop-shop (OSS) rather than a non-stop shop.
“Infrastructure
projects such as the coal power plant in Norochcholai and the Southern
Expressway have already made more money than expected. To be able to market
those as viable PPP projects to international investors, we need to turn around
the underperforming State-owned enterprises (SOEs). They can partner in the
construction of roads, power plants, and other infrastructure development
projects based on build-operate-transfer (BOT),” he added.
OSL Take: The
Sri Lankan government’s efforts to promote and develop the country’s FDI sector
continue with the incentives offered to the industry in its 2020 Budget. Along
with the international roadshows and digital campaigns planned for next year
would result in a boom in Sri Lanka’s FDI sector. Therefore, many investment
opportunities would open up in the island nation’s tourism sector shortly.
VBS/AT/10022020/Z_TB5
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