Sri Lanka targets USD2.5Bn in FDI in 2018, USD 5Bn by 2020:Fin Min

Apr 10, 2018 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's government is looking at attracting up to US 2.5 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in 2018, and to double it to US 5 billion by 2020, a statement said. In 2017 the the highest FDI inflows came from China, followed by Hong Kong, India and Singapore, the Finance Ministry said. The island reached a record US 1.9 billion dollars in 2017 in FDI's , four times that achieved in 2016. The previous high was US 1.7 billion dollars achieved in 2014. According to the Finance Ministry efforts by the Government to improve ease of doing business, reduce red tape and introduce progressive legislation helped the island achieve this target. In order to facilitate FDI, the new Inland Revenue Act provides accelerated investment allowances over and above normal depreciation until companies recover their total fixed investment. The foreign exchange regime too has been liberalized to improve the investment climate via the new Foreign Exchange Act. (Corrected)