Finance Ministry convenes 2nd ‘Ease of Doing Business’ forum today

The Ministry of Finance will be holding the second ‘Ease of Doing Business’ forum today at MILODA, Academy of Financial Studies (Old Times Building), a statement informed yesterday. 

The objective of this forum is to identify and address the procedural and regulatory issues in doing business. It will provide the private sector with a platform to interact with relevant Government institutions and seek responses to their queries. 

The inaugural meeting which was held on 14 May was an immense success, with an attendance of over 100 participants from the private sector entities and officials from over 30 Government agencies.

 The audience showed active participation and interacted efficiently to resolve matters of concern towards improving the ease of doing business climate in Sri Lanka. 

Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake launched the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ web portal at the inaugural forum. This web portal facilitates the private sector to interact with the relevant Government institutions directly and seek responses to their queries on line. 

Following the inaugural forum, the Ministry of Finance convened a number of side meetings with several Government institutions and private sector entities/business chambers, to address important issues of concern that came up at the first forum.  

The second forum scheduled for today will be chaired by Karunanayake. He will be joined by Minister of Highways and Investment Promotion Kabir Hashim, Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Drainage Rauff Hakeem, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen and State Minister of Finance Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Central Bank Governor Arujuna Mahendran and Ministry of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child, Youth and Cultural Affairs Advisor R. Paskaralingam will also be present to lend their expertise in facilitating this exercise. 

Treasury Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samarathunga and Ministry of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child, Youth and Cultural Affairs Secretary Prof. K. Liyanage along with other ministry secretaries will also participate in this forum. 

Private sector entities could forward their queries online through the web portal, which is accessible through the Ministry of Finance website (http://www.treasury.gov.lk/) or via email to [email protected]. More details could be obtained from the Ease of Doing Business Unit at the Ministry of Finance, tel: 0112484818/ 0112484583.