Sri Lanka’s investment promotion chief steps down

Mr. Sanjaya Mohottala

The Board of Investment (BOI) chairman Sanjaya Mohottala has decided to step down and has informed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of his “desire to be released from his duties’, the BOI said in a statement released tonight (Friday).

It said the chairman expressed a desire to step down after a meeting this week with the President. It did not say when the meeting was held but Mr. Mohottala is learnt to have attended Monday’s Economic Summit organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce as the incumbent BOI chairman, a BOI official said earlier in the evening (Friday).

Mr. Mohottala, BOI Director General (DG) Pasan Wanigasekera and board members Dr. Sanjaya Kulatunga, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe and Dr. Harsha Cabraal resigned last week in protest over union opposition to efforts to restructure the organisation and strictures by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises over its management.

While the President refused to accept the resignations of the chairman and DG, both had agreed initially to remain in their posts. However while the DG reported for duty this week, Mr. Mohottala had not come to office this week.

The statement quoted the chairman as saying that he was grateful “to the President for placing (the) highest confidence in him and the Board and for requesting them to continue to serve and contribute effectively to promote foreign investments to help the post COVID economic transformation of Sri Lanka”.

“The Chairman requested for a new leadership team to be appointed, so that they may continue with the efforts already made to further improve the services offered to investors, and thereby realise the vision set out by the government of Sri Lanka to double GDP over a decade,” it said.

Informed sources said the three BOI board members at the beleaguered institution have not rescinded their resignations and have stepped down.

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