Megapolis Authority to ease approval process for investors

Thursday, 10 March 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shehana Dain

The Unity Government’s flagship project, the Western Province Megapolis venture, is gearing up to boost investor confidence through an in-house approval process cooperating with the apex IT body in Sri Lanka to fast-track foreign investment.

Urban Development Authority (UDA) Director General Nayana Mawilmada said that integration of all parallel approval process into a single window was on the cards currently while the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) was providing technical assistance.

He however noted that at the initial phase officials would only concentrate on the lager investment projects. If the process goes through as much as 80% of the process would be under the authority with only the rest going through the Board of Investment (BoI).

According to Megapolis officials, after nine months of planning the mega project has received over 140 new proposals from private investors, of which some are in the processing stage at the Ministry of Finance.

“For large-scale investors, we fully recognise a faster process is needed and we are working on it. However, we cannot do it for all the investors. I don’t think it’s correct to strangle our local authorities and take it all to the centre because of the sheer volume of transactions and local ownership. We are working with ICTA to come up with an integrated application process which can fast-track this process,” Mawilmada pointed out.

He made these remarks at discussions titled ‘Deciders Breakfast Forum’ organised by Holcim Lanka, Maga Engineering Ltd. and CSR Sri Lanka.

Western Region Megapolis Planning Project Director Lakshman Jayasekara pointed out that one of the major barriers in going ahead with mega projects was obtaining environmental approval.

Since proposals can take years but still be rejected by regulators, he said the Megapolis Authority was developing a process named SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment program) which is in-house to wade through the glut of applications.

“This will lead to approvals of various other institutes such as the UDA and in fact the UDA is working in-house with us. If we have it our way and we are able go ahead with it, we can go the extent of giving you a project that is already approved by the UDA and environmental authority and put a flag on that mentioning the concession given by local regulatory bodies such as the BOI,” he added.

“The main issue right now is that the private sector is holding onto some of their projects because they don’t know what the Government will think or how it would affect the Megapolis. International institutions such as the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are holding back because the Government hasn’t given clear directions yet on how to move forward.”