BOI hosts Chinese delegations from Beijing and Jilin

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) hosted a Chinese delegation consisting of 30 senior government officials on a fact-finding mission visit to ascertain the potential of Sri Lanka as an economic partner for trade, tourism and investment.

The delegation was led by Beijing Shijingshan District People’s Government Vice Chief Executive Xiao Ping and included a number of senior officials from other provinces of China.

The Chinese visitors were briefed by the BOI on Sri Lanka’s business-friendly environment and on the current status of investment in the country.  

BOI Director Media and Publicity Dilip S. Samarasinghe made a presentation to the Chinese delegation. 

Following the presentation, Ping stated, “My delegation is very pleased to visit Sri Lanka, which is a beautiful country. We deeply appreciate the warm welcome of the Sri Lankan people and the citizens of the great city of Colombo.”  

He added that the wealthy district he represented, namely Shijingshan, was just 14 kilometres away from the Tiananmen Square in Beijing and hosted eight very important companies. 

He would promote Sri Lanka for future investment and trade to the management of those leading enterprises.  Currently, his government had targeted the development of several green universities within the 84 square kilometre district. The district is also famous for finance and industry.

Another delegation, hailing from the Jilin Province in the North East of China, also visited the BOI recently. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia. It is a province that is rich in mineral resources industries includes automobile and railway carriage manufacture and other steel-based products.  

The capital of the Jilin Province is Changchun. This delegation’s visit to Sri Lanka was organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCSL) and was led by China Commerce Department Vice Director General Sun Guohua.

The Jilin visitors consisted of three government officials and 10 members from the private sector of the province.

Their area of interest was mainly in exploring awareness investing in the construction sector, manufacturing and light industries.

China, with a cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) of US $ 1.1 billion for the period 2005-2016, is the third ranked source of FDI for Sri Lanka. In addition, another US $ 1.145 billion of Sri Lanka’s FDI in 2005-2016 originated from Hong Kong (ranked second place).

There are currently 25 Chinese companies that have invested and operating in Sri Lanka as the BOI enterprises (Section 17). A further nine Chinese enterprises are awaiting commercial operation while seven more have been approved.