The Board of Investment (BOI), the apex agency for promoting foreign direct investments, is pleased to launch a series of online webinars that aims at raising awareness about the potential investment opportunities in Sri Lanka and thus, attracting new investors despite setbacks.

The BOI is of the view that times of hardships can be a time for new opportunities for investors to engage in novel investments in the country. As such, the BOI is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it moves in the positive direction so as to make a point of bringing in new investments to the country.

In addition, the webinar series also creates a platform for investors to gain awareness about the Investor Facilitation Centre (IFC), which was unveiled recently on the 27^th floor at the West Tower of the World Trade Centre with the objective of streamlining services provided to investors.              

The first of the series was held last week via zoom covering the manufacturing sector with the participants from across the globe. The 60-minuite webinar got off the ground with the presentation delivered by BOI Director General Renuka M Weerakone, where she gave an overview on the topic ‘Why Sri Lanka’ underscoring the areas like investment climate, investment incentives, talent & education, market access, quality of life and location advantages.     

While highlighting the incentives and facilities that BOI is geared to grant for the manufacturing sector, Ms Weerakone elucidated on investment opportunities available in the industries come under the manufacturing sector, namely, electronics and electrical components, boat building, rubber based products, textile & apparels, automotive components and pharmaceutical and medical devises.

The session was then followed by a question-and-answer session, which enabled registered participants to pose their questions to the panel of senior BOI officials.

The webinar had an overwhelming interest with the registration of 206 participants from various countries including China, Japan, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, USA and Canada.

Commenting on the webinar series, BOI Chairman Raja Edirisuriya said “A webinar series of this nature is indeed opportune as it enhances the confidence of the investors encouraging them to invest in Sri Lanka irrespective of the turbulent circumstances prevailing in the country,” 

“As far as the first webinar is concerned, it was a huge success as we witnessed the participants from different parts of the world, who had joined the webinar with great interest and enthusiasm. This is also an encouraging factor at this juncture where Sri Lanka is facing economic hardships,” the BOI Chairman added.

The subsequent webinars in the series will explore the sectors such as ICT, Agriculture & Food Processing, Logistic and Utility sectors respectively and will be notified through the BOI website, www.investsrilanka.com