Sri Lanka: Port City a key service hub

p Keynote Address at the inauguration of the Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2021by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka"It gives me great pleasure to address you at the inaugural session of the Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2021.This event takes a holistic view of the many and varied investment opportunities Sri Lanka offers across all sectors of its economy. It brings together the Board of Investment, Colombo Stock Exchange and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, alongside key policymakers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

This will encourage robust dialogue and information sharing about our investment environment, and it will highlight opportunities for direct investments as well as opportunities in capital markets and debt markets.This investment forum comes at an important time for Sri Lanka.

My Government has ambitious plans to unleash a decade of transformational and rapid economic growth to double our national output from its current level to 8,000 dollars GDP per capita by 2030. Our unique geostrategic position, political stability, robust institutions and social infrastructure, educated and capable workforce, and high quality of life are some of Sri Lanka's current strengths. We will leverage on these to set the platform for our growth target.

In addition, significant improvements to our infrastructure are continually being made. These include increasing power generation from renewable sources, improving connectivity through upgrading of road and rail networks, and further expansion and improvements to our ports that will all facilitate our development drive.

We are deeply committed to maintaining policy stability and consistency within a stable macroeconomic environment. Our legal and regulatory frameworks are being refined to ensure greater responsiveness, transparency, and security for investors.

Unnecessary bureaucratic red tape is being removed and procedures are being streamlined to ensure greater ease of doing business.As...