The long-awaited Board of Investment (BOI) reorientation initiative is to be completed within the next two or three weeks to enable it to take the lead in defining investment priorities and marketing these to investors, rather than just responding to proposals only, the country’s top technocrat asserted in Colombo on Monday.
Treasury Secretary Dr P.B. Jayasundera was responding to a comment made by an exporter at a Colombo forum.
A disappointed exporter who manages two BOI factories said that the BOI is now a ‘dead duck’ and the staff is not concerned on investment promotion as they are ‘lethargically waiting’ for the restructuring of the country’s only investment promotion agency in the country.
“The BOI is not the ‘one stop shop’ as it used to be and it is less effective in facilitating and servicing large investments outside these zones. It’s large, inefficient, and outdated bureaucracy who often works at cross-purposes has become an obstacle against genuine investors,” the exporter said. He said that it is better to operate these industrial ventures outside the purview of the BOI, rather than maintain it under the BOI.
The Treasury Secretary told a packed audience of local exporters at a forum organized by the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka that there will be a re-formulation of strategies and institutional mechanisms to improve the investment climate of the country.
The BOI will be re-formulated and institutional mechanisms will be changed making it the major investment promotion agency in the country. Above all, the BOI officials must be 200 % dynamic. Institutional dynamism should come from the Chairman, the Board of Directors, the executives and the officials, he said, adding that steps have been taken towards this end. The BOI must also concentrate on follow up and monitoring. The existing investor portfolio needs assistance, because they have come here under different conditions. Therefore, whenever they request something, it should be responded to in a timely manner, he said.
When contacted to get further details on the current situation at the BOI, a senior official of the investment promotion agency said that a dedicated Zone Management Division has been established to manage 12 Investment Promotion Zones effectively and eficiently. Sector and country -focused Investor Relations Teams have been appointed. These teams (together with special units to handle high-profile projects and regional initiatives) will cover all vital sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, services including tourism and infrastructure.
Each team will work with the ministries and agencies in their sector to develop a joint sector strategy identify investment priorities and promote these to target companies. These teams will act as relationship managers for all investors in their sector, from project evaluation to implementation to post-investment after-care, he revealed. |
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