BOI to establish effective one-stop shop to expedite FDI 

Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment (BOI) will facilitate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country effectively by establishing an on-line one-stop shop with World Bank assistance by mid next year, BOI Chief Dumindra Ratnayaka said in Colombo.

This virtual platform of a ‘one-stop shop' is now being developed to enable investors to obtain all key agency approvals ‘virtually’. 

The approval processes of at least 24 line agencies has been mapped and there will be consensus reached between those individual agencies and BOI on the simplest or shortest possible mechanism to grant approvals, the BOI Chief told a gathering of business leaders, investors, and industrialists at a meeting organized by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in Colombo on Tuesday.

This National Single Window will pave the way to establish a system that integrates those agencies dealing with various clearances/approvals in trading across borders, he added. 

The BOI will attract US$1billion FDI through foreign investment projects and its target for 2020 is $5 billion, he said adding that the approvals mechanism at BOI has been improved to avoid delays – a complaint frequently made many investors. 

The FDIs of BOI enterprises to the country which was on a declining trend since 2014 with a drop of 37 per cent in 2015 and 17 per cent in 2016 has seen a slight turnaround in 2017 with an amount of $711.2 million for the eight months up to August.

The BOI now uses a template developed in consultation with McKinsey to screen all applications, assesses quality of investors through a more robust and holistic approach, and provide responses to new applicants as soon as possible. 

Outlining the investment project proposal appraisal process, he noted that such proposals are submitted to the Single Window Investment Approval Committee (SWIAC) appointed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management to evaluate and take a decision on approval. 

The projects approved by SWIAC are referred to an Investment Facilitation Committee (IFC) chaired by an Advisor to the Prime Minister to fast-track the external approvals/clearances etc to prevent existing bottlenecks hampering projects, he pointed out. (Bandula)