FDIs into Sri Lanka stay robust amid challenges: State Minister

Tuesday, 6 December 2022 02:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From left: BOI Chairman Raja Edirisuriya, State Minister of Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugam and BOI Director-General Renuka Weerakone

Attracts $ 713 m FDIs in first 9 months or 71% of set target of $ 1 b for 2022
Signs up 123 projects with an investment commitment of $ 1.9 b YTD during 11 months
New projects worth $ 1.5 b from India, Japan, Norway, Hong Kong, UK, US, Singapore
Merchandise export revenues of BOI enterprises top $ 7.9 b from 1 Jan. to 26 Nov.

Despite a wave of global and local volatility, the Board of Investments has attracted foreign direct investment at record levels, amounting to $ 713 million in the first nine months of 2022, or 71% of the full-year target of $ 1 billion, State Minister of Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama said yesterday.

During the 11 months, BOI has inked a total of 123 agreements to the value of $ 1.9 billion, which consists of $ 1.5 billion in new projects and $ 400 million in expansions.

New projects are from countries such as India, Japan, Norway, Hong Kong, the UK, the USA, and Singapore.

Out of 41 new projects, the majority are for the manufacturing sector including apparel followed by ICT, tourism, infrastructure, utilities, services, and agriculture sectors while most of the expansions of existing projects are from the manufacturing sector including apparel followed by logistics, telecommunication, ICT and agriculture sectors.

In addition, the export revenue of BOI enterprises topped $ 7.9 billion for the period from January to 26 November.

The statistics related to merchandise exports as per BOI Research and Policy Advocacy Department highlight that all export items except food, paper, and horticultural products have shown a significant increase in the given period compared to the corresponding period in 2021.

Accordingly, wearing apparel (excluding leather garments) exports grew 8 % to $ 4,591.86 million in 2022 compared to the $ 4,261.48 million recorded in 2021, while rubber exports grew 3 % to $ 1,052 million.

Also, other manufactured products (N.E.S.) exports grew 112 % to $ 477 million, while PVC products grew 20 % to $ 100.54 million.

In addition, export earnings from jewellery and lapidary increased by 16 % to $ 134.99 million in 2022 whilst leather products (including leather garments) grew 72 % to $ 16.32 and footwear exports grew 146% to 2.6 million.

Apparel exports show the highest earnings in 2022 while footwear exports show the highest percentage in terms of growth.

The BOI has always been the forerunner of Sri Lanka’s export sector contributing to over 65% of the country’s overall export earnings and 85% of the national industrial export earnings.