Latest issue of Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009:

BOI best IPI in South Asia

The latest issue of Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009 (GIPB) published by the World Bank’s Investment Climate Advisory Service has ranked the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) as the best in South Asia for investor promotion and facilitation.

GIPB 2009 has described BOI Sri Lanka as the only “Good” performing Investment Promotion Institute (IPI) in South Asia. BOI having received a score of 64 out of 100 has shown a remarkable progress out of 181 countries surveyed for the report.

According to GIPB 2009, BOI Sri Lanka was the most improved IPI in South Asia and it is among the major improvers since 2006. It increased its score in 2008 by 29 points, mainly due to an improved web site that offers detailed, reliable and current data. The BOI Sri Lanka web site is among the Top 25 National and Sub national IPIs web sites.

GIPB 2009 Summary Report said that overall, Asia has improved its performance by 25 percentage points in the last two years. Eight of the top improvers worldwide including Sri Lanka are in this region.

The report also said that the South Asian IPIs perform even less well in handling investors’ direct inquiries. IPIs in this region would benefit from management giving facilitation and customer service a much higher priority in core IPI activities, as well as ensuring that the staff is exposed to investor needs and acquiring at least some sector specialization.

Middle-income countries are showing immense progress in competing for mobile investment, particularly Brazil, Botswana, Colombia, Lithuania and Turkey. Lower-income countries like Honduras and Sri Lanka, which offer strong facilitation services, are evidence that a country’s income is not linked to performance.

BOI Chairman and Director General Dhammika Perera said that this ranking is a testimony to the various improvements made in recent years for expeditious and courteous investor facilitation.

Including the projected figure for this year, the BOI has succeeded in attracting US$ 2.8 billion in Foreign Direct Investment since 2006 as opposed to US$ 2.7 billion only between 1997 and 2005. A total of 213 IPIs were assessed under this survey. This total consisted of 181 National IPIs and 32 Sub national IPIs. The report, GIPB 2009, surveys the performance of National and Sub-national IPIs in 181 countries, presenting one of the most comprehensive benchmarking tools ever.

The report assesses the effectiveness of intermediaries’ facilitation services in assisting a potential foreign investor. The report finds that over 70 percent of intermediaries may be missing foreign investment and job-creating opportunities by failing to provide accurate and timely information to potential investors.