BOI hosts Belgian biz delegation

Friday, 14 December 2012 01:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka hosted a business delegation from Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium.

The delegation expressed interest in the possibility of expanding trade and investment in Sri Lanka. The discussion covered a wide range of subjects, including the current status of Belgian investment in Sri Lanka.

The Belgian delegation from Wallonia attending the briefing by the Board of Investment on the attractive advantages of investing in Sri Lanka

Though Belgium is a comparatively small country in Europe, she has emerged as an important investor in Sri Lanka with a number of reputed enterprises having already established projects in the country. At present, Belgian investments range from the manufacture of solid rubber tires, to diamond cutting and the manufacture of cigars for export. Economic relations have been enhanced by double taxation and investment protection agreements between Sri Lanka and Belgium.

Whilst conditions for Belgian investment are favourable, the delegation expressed interest in evaluating investments in other sectors such as food processing and IT and IT-enabled services. Those two areas are also thrust sectors for the BOI, which is actively promoting investments in agriculture and agro- industries and also IT and BPO type operations. The Belgian delegation, led by Philippe Suinen, was from AWEX, the Wallonia Trade and Investment Agency, which has a worldwide network of 105 economic trade attaches. The other delegates included officials from AWEX, the Belgian Embassy and private entrepreneurs. Also present was Pierre Pringers, Honorary Consul of Belgium in Sri Lanka. The BOI was represented by M.M.C. Ferdinando, Chairman/Director General, Nilupul de Silva, Director (Promotion), Dilip S. Samarasinghe, Director (Media and Publicity), and Champika Malagoda, Director (Research and Policy Advocacy).

The Belgium Province of Wallonia is the French-speaking area of Belgium. In recent years this area has succeeded in attracting significant investments, including the Google Enterprise Documentation Centre. According to the delegation, the incentives to investment offered by Sri Lanka were attractive. The delegation also expressed interest in the economic thrust sectors promoted by the BOI.

The BOI briefed the delegation on the nature of investment in the country. In the 1970s Sri Lanka had focused on attracting projects which generated a large number of jobs, such as the textiles and garment industries, but the focus now was on projects which created technical skills such as the IT and IT-enabled services and in the service sector in general.