BOI and Austrade share strategies to strengthen FDI attraction

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) hosted a tailored knowledge-sharing workshop led by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), focusing on Austrade’s strategies and practices for promoting and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

The workshop follows an earlier session on Austrade’s Trade Promotion and Facilitation programme and forms part of an identified activity under the bilateral Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement (TIFA) Action Plan between Sri Lanka and Australia.

The session examined Austrade’s approach to promoting productive FDI, its priority sectors, and its methods for implementation, investor targeting and engagement. Drawing on international best practices, the workshop adopted a practical approach aimed at informing the ongoing development of the BOI’s investment attraction strategy as it seeks to expand its activities in areas where Sri Lanka has a competitive advantage.

Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mathew Duckworth, delivered the keynote address, highlighting Sri Lanka’s potential to attract investment by leveraging its skilled workforce and strategic location.

“In my role here, I study the Sri Lankan economy a lot, and I see a lot of competitive advantage here... The way that Sri Lanka can maximise this is by ensuring you have domestic settings that will attract the investment... to enable you to harness the value from the competitive advantage you have in your skilled workforce and your strategic location in this part of the world,” he said.

The workshop was conducted by Andrew Carter, Trade and Investment Commissioner of Austrade. BOI Chairman Duminda Hulangamuwa delivered the welcome remarks, underscoring the importance both institutions place on deepening bilateral cooperation in investment promotion.

Austrade is the Australian Government’s national trade promotion and investment attraction agency and is recognised as a leading investment promotion agency (IPA) globally. It takes a strategic approach to priority sectors and works across levels of government and with industry to advance its investment attraction objectives.

The workshop is expected to enhance the BOI’s understanding of Austrade’s design and implementation of investment attraction strategies, including sector-specific promotion and investor targeting.

It is also expected to strengthen the BOI’s institutional capacity to engage with quality investments and provide insights to inform value proposition briefs for Sri Lanka’s mineral and education sectors.