The Ministry of Technology and Investment Promotion has taken measures to streamline the investment approval process by eliminating the heavy paper work and filling of application forms with a view of attracting more Foreign Direct Investments into the country, a senior official of the ministry said.
Prompt action has been taken to remove obstacles and bureaucratic red tape in obtaining approval for foregn investment projects from the Board of Investment(BOI) and other relevant state institutions, he disclosed.
FDI application form with several pages to be filled by the prospective foreign investors has been reduced to single page from 14 pages with immediate effect and the approval will be given within 24 hours if they fulfill necessary requirements, he revealed.
It has been planned to simplify the rules and regulations of the investment approval process to overcome official red tape.
The new FDI online approval system has been devised on the directions of Minister Dhammika Perera, investment promotion ministry senior official said that the BOI will revitalise its status as the one stop shop for investment approval process, he added. .
An action plan will be implemented soon to ensure US $ 7 billion in annual local investment by 2025, $ 7 billion in annual Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by hesame year and , improve Sri Lanka’s rank in the Ease of Doing Business Index to 50 this year from 100 , and improve Sri Lanka’s rank in the Global Competitiveness Index to 45 from 85
The action plans include streamlining the investment approval process by reducing the number of pages in the investment application from 14 toone , providing a preliminary approval within 24 hours, and simplifying the rules and regulations of the investment approval process to overcome red tape.
Also, he suggested granting guaranteed tax benefits in agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) for 25 years, to gain the competitive advantage of investing in Sri Lanka.
Some of the sectors that will be exempt from corporate tax, value-added tax, and dividend tax for 25 years under this proposal would be education, information services, air transport, and the manufacture of motor vehicles.
Additionally, Minister Dhammika Perera’s plans under the Technology Ministry include increasing ICT revenue from $ 1.2 billion to $ 5 billion by 2025, increasing ICT jobs from 80,000 employees to 400,000 employees by 2025, and transforming developed Sri Lanka into a “Smart Sri Lanka” in 2030.
Perera in his plan intends to develop Sri Lanka into a “Smart Sri Lanka” in three years and achieve the status of an emerging market by 2030 with the use of an AI-driven unified ICT platform for all public services.
Some of his focus areas include smart education, smart health, smart agriculture, smart transport, and smart tourism.
His targets for the private sector include a fourfold increase in ICT revenue from $ 1.2 billion to $ 5 billion by 2025, a fivefold increase in ICT jobs from 80,000 employees to 400,000 employees by 2025.
