Sri Lanka is looking to prioritise investments in to energy sector and renewable energy sector and are looking for investors specially from India and other countries to came forward in this segment said State Minister for Finance Shehan Semasinghe at the “Invest Sri Lanka” Investor Forum, which successfully concluded in Mumbai India, at the Taj Lands End Hotel.
The event was organized by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in association with the Confederation of the Indian Industry (CII) and the first event was held on August 9. India came forward to help during tough times, the State Finance Finance Minister recalled.
“We are happy to say that we engage positively with our mutual creditors and now we have recovered and we are well on the positive roadmap of recovery and soon we will start growing and this creates opportunities for investors to take part in its
Minister also explained that in a bid to create a level playing field a new anti-corruption law has been introduced and a new budget office of parliament is opened.
“In addition , a new central bank act which will keep the central bank from any interference is also being introduced.”
In addition several other structural changes have been put to place in regaining economic stability in the country.
He also mentioned the role of the tourism sector and said that Lankan tourism is growing.
“However we still think that our full capacity is not being utilised fully for tourism as we could get more arrivals from India. Meanwhile, Chairman Colombo Stock Exchange Dilshan Wirasekara said that CSE offers an attractive investment opportunity to Indian and other investors.
He said that CSE maintains a strong market position with an USD14.4 billion market cap with 283 companies across 20 GICS industry groups. It has a 15.9% market cap to GDP while 24.4% equity is held by foreign investors.
He told the Indian capital market investors that CSE has no capital gains tax or stamp duty.