Thursday, 29 May 2014 00:00
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In an attempt to streamline foreign investment, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Michele J. Sison yesterday welcomed an initiative put forward by Investment Promotion Ministry to set up a ‘one-stop-shop’ to address bottlenecks in US inflows.
Sison, during her address at the American Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (AMCHAM)’s luncheon meeting on ‘Doing Business with the US,’ applauded the move, but noted other measures were also needed to step up Sri Lanka’s lacklustre Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“With the Government implementing a one-stop-shop for investors, we agree that it will help increase the potential and formation of businesses.”
The idea was formally proposed by Deputy Ministry of Investment Promotion Faiszer Mustapha, also present at the meeting, with the intention of creating a platform to address issues faced by US companies when doing business in Sri Lanka.
While the initiative will be coordinated by the Investment Promotion Ministry, the one-stop-shop will be executed with the involvement of the US Embassy and AMCHAM Sri Lanka. The three institutions will meet once a month to solve issues put forward by US entities.
The one-stop-shop initiative is similar to what the Ministry has kicked off with the European Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ECCSL), which has been highly successful according to the Deputy Minister.
With the US Government focusing on stepping up global investment, US Ambassador Sison pointed out the Embassy has taken a number of measures to increase trade relationship between the two countries.
The first is the launch of a number of new toolkits in the area of diplomacy and economic statecraft to promote entrepreneurship and innovation between the two countries.
The second is the hosting of ‘direct line calls,’ where US companies from around the world can reach out to their embassies and inquire about commercial opportunities. Sison shared that so far Sri Lanka has had two calls, one for food and beverage franchising and the other for medical devices, both of which were successful.
The third is having business database systems where the Embassy will aggregate US businesses export leads.
“We want to demonstrate that our relationship with Sri Lanka is robust and is multifaceted and that we have a strong and historic economic partnership, which we are hoping to expand. We also want to ensure the benefits of the free and open trading system are realised in Sri Lanka,” she said.
The US is Sri Lanka’s largest export market with an annual average turnover of about $ 2.1 billion. Over the past six years bilateral trade between the two countries has increased by 35% and by the end of 2013 it stood at $ 2.8 billion.
