Sri Lank foreign direct investments dominated by telecoms

Aug 26, 2008 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in the first six months of the year reached 425 million US dollars with telecoms bringing in most of the money, the investment promotion office said.



Sri Lanka's telecom firms have been pouring billions into network expansion in the last few years, but the sector has seen reduced profitability this year.

The Board of Investment says the FDI flows in the first half of 2008 were 60 percent higher than the 265 million reached last year up to June.

Officials are hoping to end the year with billion dollars of FDI compared with 734 million dollars last year.

Investment promotion minister Sarath Amunugama says he is trying to persuade India's TATA group to start a plant in the island to make the small Nano car.

BOI says the services sector attracted 362.

3 million dollars worth of investments with telecom leading with 290.



7 million dollars followed by power generation with 46 million dollars.

Property development had brought in 7.

2 million dollars, hotels 2.07 million, other services 7.5 million and business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology 9.



05 million dollars.

BPO services did not account for much in dolla