Colombo Port City – newest commercial landscape in Asia, says Veemansa Initiative
View(s):Veemansa Initiative, an independent think tank, recently held a webinar on the proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill and related subjects.
“Based on the deliberations at the webinar and the follow-up analysis, it was evident that the Colombo Port City Project, a 100 per cent foreign investment venture plans to attract a diverse group of secondary investors,” Veemasa said in a media release.
A prime target of the project is the financial sector in order to project Sri Lanka as an internationally competitive Financial Centre.
In this regard, the establishment of regional headquarters of international banking giants and other financial sector enterprises is expected to be realised in the initial stages.
“Further consideration based on the presentations at the webinar, it was evident that Sri Lanka’s existing rules and regulations, including anti-money laundering regulations and monitoring mechanism, is well equipped to counter any possibilities of money laundering or any other illegal transaction. Sri Lanka’s Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing the Terrorism regime comprises three pieces of legislation,” it said.
In order to provide and monitor financial transactions, a Financial Intelligent Unit was established in 2006 under the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
This unit currently functions as an independent institution within the Central Bank. The overall objective of this unit is to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and related crime scenes in Sri Lanka in line with international standards and best practices. It is observed that with such stringent regulations and implementing framework, the Colombo port city will never become a money-laundering centre, Veemansa said.
If any such potential exists in Colombo, it should be equally applicable to Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. During the follow-up discussions, it was noted that Chinese Special Economic Zones, even with substantial liberalisation of the financial transactions have successfully managed to prevent money laundering or related activities.
Discussions at the webinar also highlighted the generation of foreign exchange earnings and new employment opportunities for highly skilled manpower.
According to the presentations of the government, taking into consideration the emerging demand for such human resources, reforms in the education sector has been proposed.
Veemansa Initiative said it plans to conduct further discussions and analysis on the implementation of Colombo Port City in the months and years to come.