President tells Parliament FDI in 2011 exceeded $ 1 b

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s 2011 Foreign Direct Investment has already exceeded a record $ 1 billion this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday.

Sri Lanka had forecast $ 1 billion FDI, almost double last year’s $ 516 million, as the country is increasingly attracting offshore investments as it emerges from a 25-year war, which ended in May 2009.

“For the first time, Foreign Direct Investments into this country have exceeded $ 1,000 million,” President Rajapaksa, who is also the Finance Minister, told Parliament when he participated in the 2012 final Budget vote.

FDI almost doubled to $ 413 million in the first half of 2011 year-on-year, the latest Government data showed, with the country enjoying large post-war investments in its leisure sector.

The $ 50 billion economy saw $ 889 million FDI in 2008, when the military and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were waging the final phase of the three-decade war.

Tourist arrivals in November hit a monthly record of 90,889, up 25.8 per cent year-on-year, surpassing the previous monthly peak of 84,627 in December, while the arrivals jumped 33.1 per cent to 758,458 in the first 11 months of 2011 from a year earlier, higher than Sri Lanka’s record annual tourist arrivals of 654,476 in 2010.

Large investments in the leisure sector include a $ 500 million hotel, shopping and apartment project by Shangri-La Asia Ltd. and a $ 450 million by India’s ITC Ltd. conglomerate, to build a hotel under the Sheraton name.

 ITC is a franchisee of the largest of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide’s brands.