Sri Lanka invites more Chinese investors

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka on Monday called on more Chinese investors to invest in the island country, saying that China had invested more than $52 million in the country in 2016 alone.

Speaking at the China-Sri Lanka Infrastructure Investment Cooperation Forum in Colombo, Commerce and Industry Minister Rishard Bathiudeen said that in 2016, Sri Lanka received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $801 million.

Bathiudeen said mega Chinese projects such as the recently signed $1.1 billion Hambantota Port agreement between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and China Merchants Port Holdings and the $1.4 billion Colombo Financial City project were immensely beneficial for the island country.

He said there were many other Chinese FDI projects in Sri Lanka including in the textile and apparel, fisheries and manufacturing sectors.

"Tourism is another attractive sector since Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka doubled from year to year. Therefore today I invite the potential Chinese investors to invest in Sri Lanka and partner with us," Bathiudeen said.

Statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce showed total trade volume between China and Sri Lanka reached $4.4 billion. That is a 363 percent increase in comparison to a decade back in 2007, which stood at $965 million.