Is Sri Lanka’s investor-friendly environment at risk?

Barely a month after the Korean envoy highlighted the need to improve Sri Lanka’s ease of doing business and bureaucratic efficiency in trade facilitation, the new Indonesian envoy echoed similar concerns at a round-table discussion organised by the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo. She observed that transparency and investment regulations in Sri Lanka must inspire greater confidence among the private sector.

The obvious question is: when will we learn? For more than half a century, the country has discussed red tape, administrative inefficiency, and the need for reform. Yet meaningful action remains elusive. The conversation continues, but the obstacles remain firmly in place.

In fact, some recent regulatory changes appear to be increasing the burden rather than reducing it. In property transactions, where previously only the seller executed the transfer documents, both buyer and seller are now required to sign and provide fingerprints, adding further procedural complexity. Likewise, a friend seeking a routine passport extension spent nine hours at the Passport Office, largely because officials had to verify the authenticity of his National Identity Card.

Such examples raise a broader concern. If government agencies devote excessive time to repeatedly verifying documents that should already be secure and easily authenticated, efficiency will remain a distant goal. Investors judge a country not only by its policies but also by the speed, predictability, and simplicity of its administrative processes.

Before aggressively courting foreign investment, Sri Lanka must first put its own house in order. Without these reforms, promises of an investor-friendly environment risk sounding more like rhetoric than reality.

Upali Weerasinghe