Silicon Valley filled with funds but not enough platforms for investment
The world famous high tech industry Silicon Valley located in California in the United States has a lot of funds out there, but not enough great platforms for investment, according to Allison Areias – Vogel, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Sri Lanka.
She made this comment to the Business Times on the sidelines of a presentation organised by the Sri Lanka-America Society at the Ramada Hotel in Colombo recently.
Ms. Vogel said, “There is so much money out there in the Silicon Valley, but not enough good projects for investment around the world.” The US has a new project which probably will kick off mid this year known as ‘All World Network’. It’s a project to be conducted worldwide. A team of various industry experts will review growing companies, looking at their investments, ethics and transparency. The project will help Sri Lankan companies to get the exposure,” she added.
Any project the US plans on Sri Lanka will be a long term project. Every American company looks at quality over quantity. Some of the categories of companies the ‘All World Network’ project looks for are companies related to Energy, Petroleum, Telecommunication, Transportation, Locomotives and Tourism.
She also mentioned that the US looks for more feasible projects worldwide. After the Presidential election many countries rushed to Sri Lanka for discussions on new investments and economic policies, but the US did not do so. “We will be monitoring many aspects before investing, such as companies being transparent, a level playing field and so on,” she noted.
Speaking at the event she stressed that the main purpose of the ‘All World Network’ project is to bring about global capital. The experts find out good, well-run companies with tremendous, demonstrated growth, create a ranking and publicise it with the hope that, capital that is flooding around the world will come to Sri Lanka and bring partnerships. Any company can apply but there is a certain threshold in terms of margins. Revenue has to be more than Rs. 500 million, provide three years of financial data, show demonstrated growth, able to have international accounting standards and good business ethics. The companies also have to be credible, verifiable and transparent.
She also pointed out that the imports to the US from Sri Lanka are more than exports. This has to change. The previous government under the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was focusing more on the import substitution policy. Many countries in the region have practised that model and were not successful. “We hope that the present government will come up with a solid plan on the economic policies which make sense,” she added.
Sri Lanka also has to focus a lot on exports and should invest on expensive products, not just by only going for Chinese products because they are cheap. The US has more focus on Sri Lanka because it is the only country that has good relationships with its neighbouring countries in the region. Sri Lanka has incredible innovators in the apparel, IT and services sectors which opens up the economyof the country. The country should also look at the health care sector where the US has some of the best healthcare technology in the world.