Secretary Jayasundara lands on the fence on industrial land

The Secretary to the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development stated that Sri Lanka has allocated only 0.01% of its total land area for industries — suggesting that industrial land allocation in Sri Lanka is far below international norms. To verify this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted data from the Board of Investment, the Ministry of Industrial Development Board, World Bank data on total land area of countries, and sources on land allocation for zones in other countries.
FactCheck.lk did not find a national or international dataset measuring total industrial land in a directly comparable way across countries. As a proxy, FactCheck.lk used land designated as industrial zones (Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks) to estimate industrial land in Sri Lanka and comparable countries.
Sri Lanka’s total land area is approximately 15,285,915 acres. If only 0.01% of land were allocated to industries, this would equal about 1,528 acres. However, land allocated for Export Processing Zones alone amounts to 5,076 acres, equivalent to 0.03% of total land area. This figure is over three times higher than the Secretary’s stated number, even while it excludes industrial land outside these zones.
Although the Secretary has hugely under-estimated the extent of industrial land in Sri Lanka, the broader point—that Sri Lanka has a relatively low share of land designated for industrial use—holds when compared against industrial zone land in high-performing regional peers such as Vietnam and Thailand.
The share of land allocated for industrial zones in Vietnam is 0.30% (ten times more than Sri Lanka) and 1.27% in Thailand (forty time more than Sri Lanka). This comparison supports the interpretation that Sri Lanka’s industrial land allocation is low relative to what would be desirable for an expanding industrial economy, even though the specific 0.01% figure cited by the Secretary is incorrect.
Therefore, we classify the Secretary’s claim as PARTLY TRUE.
*FactCheck.lk’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck.lk will revisit the assessment.