Shehan Semasinghe, State Minister of Finance, Sri Lanka, stressed that “now is the ideal time to invest in Sri Lanka.” Speaking at an Investor Forum in India, a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Semasinghe detailed the reforms undertaken by Sri Lanka, and how they were helping the country recover from last year’s economic crisis.
He said that the Sri Lankan government had announced that the Indian rupee to be a “designated currency”, meaning transactions in Sri Lanka could be done in the rupee.
PKG Harishchandra, Director of Research, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, made a detailed presentation on how the economy was recovering. Inflation has come under control improving tax collections, increase in tourist arrivals, (which reflected in) services PMI being above 50 (indicating expansion), pick up in private sector credit, declining trade deficit and increasing in remittance from overseas Sri Lankans.
Dilshan Wirasekara, Chairman, Colombo Stock Exchange, emphasised that the exchange was attractive to list on, with zero capital gains tax and stamp duty. Sri Lanka is set to carry out many roadshows in India following the first one in Chennai to showcase it’s resurgence and to attract Indian investments.
