MMBL-Pathfinder partner Northern Province investment promotion

Tuesday, 30 September 2014 01:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Board of Investment (BOI) has focused its attention on the Northern Province with a view to opening up of the province for investment, both foreign and local. The program would go a long way to address unemployment and give a fillip to the economy of the province that has gone through difficult times for several decades.

The idea of spearheading an investment promotion effort was a brainchild of Minister in charge of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana, who chaired the meeting of the Investor Forum held on 29 September at the Jaffna District Secretariat, which was attended by Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprises Douglas Devananda and other provincial level political leaders. MMBL-Pathfinder Group Director Bernard Goonetilleke spoke of the interest of his group of companies in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. In this regard, he cited the Yarl Hotel project, a joint venture between MMBL-Pathfinder Group and the Jetwing Group, that would infuse in excess of Rs. 1 billion in the project in the city of Jaffna and due to be completed next year, while also mentioning the interest of his group to inject Rs. 600 million in another hotel project in the sparsely-populated idyllic island of Delft. Another venture in the pipeline of the MMBL-Pathfinder Group is an agriculture project in Pooneryn. He also highlighted several other resort projects planned for Yan Oya area and Vakarai in the Eastern Province in collaboration with a local blue chip company. Speaking of accessibility, he said that Cinnamon Air, a joint venture involving John Keells Holdings, MMBL Leisure Holdings (a part of the MMBL Group) and Phoenix Ventures (parent of the Brandix Group), the only scheduled domestic airline in the country, could provide easy access from BIA to Palaly in Jaffna. Goonetilleke highlighted the scope for development of agriculture, fisheries, and food processing industries that could change the environment of the Northern Province and bring prosperity to the province. Emphasising on the high level of achievement in the field of education Jaffna enjoyed in the past, he invited investors to focus on development of education, which would once again produce highly-qualified academics, professionals and a skilled workforce that would be the pride of the country. Pointing out that his group succeeded in persuading an expatriate Tamil entrepreneur to invest in their Yarl Hotel project, he invited other expatriates to follow suit, while also highlighting the need for Government institutions to be investor-friendly so as to win confidence.