India’s Investments in Sri Lanka reach 1 billion dollars mark

As per the Indian envoy to Colombo Ashok K Kantha Indian companies have invested nearly 1 billion dollars in Sri Lanka since 2003.

The figure is supposed to rise above 2 billion dollars in the next five years. It is important here to note that with investment inflows of 160 million Dollars in 2012, nearly 2 billion Dollars worth of FDI had been committed by Indian companies for the next five years or so.

Some Points to be Known

• In 2011-12, India’s imports from Sri Lanka went up by almost 45 per cent to cross 720 million dollars, making Sri Lanka the largest source of merchandise from the South Asian region for India.
• It was a big jump from the 45 million dollars imports in 2000-01, when Sri Lanka occupied 4th rank as an import source for India in the region.
• Sri Lanka’s exports to India had multiplied by over 16 times in this period, while India’s exports to Sri Lanka had gone up by less than 7 times.

Basically the FTA had brought significant benefits to both sides, but more to Sri Lanka. In Last few years a number of top Indian companies had displayed high interest in Sri Lanka, investing in the country across sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, services, and construction.