Sri Lanka receives highest ever FDI in 2017

Colombo, Jan 29 (IANS) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka reached an all-time high of $1.63 billion in 2017, doubling from the $802 million received during the previous year, Sri Lanka's Board of Investment (BOI) said in a statement on Monday.

The highest FDI came from China, followed by India and Singapore.

BOI, the agency tasked with promoting and facilitating FDIs, reported that the number achieved in 2017 was the highest ever, surpassing the $1.61 billion mark in 2014, with solid growth across key sectors.

"The strong growth is a direct consequence of the government's reorientation of economic policy towards investment and export-driven growth, rather than debt-funded public infrastructure spending," the BOI statement said, reports Xinhua.

Among the highest growth sectors were export-oriented manufacturing and services, which includes tourism, IT and infrastructure.

Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama said that while Sri Lanka had achieved strong FDI results in 2017, the country had only scratched the surface of its full potential.

"This is not a time for complacency but renewed focus to use the momentum to strengthen reforms to improve our Ease of Doing Business ranking, and efforts to attract high-quality investors from countries we have renewed bilateral relationships with," the minister said.

He added that the country's target was to achieve $5 billion in FDI per year by 2020 and it was confident of achieving $2.5 billion of FDI in 2018.

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