The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and the Urban Development Authority (UDA) marked a significant milestone when the two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance the cooperation between the two agencies, and to reduce time and costs for investors both foreign and local by streamlining approval processes.
“Under this agreement, the two agencies agree to re-engineer the existing approval process of both agencies targeting investor convenience, enhance efficiency and effectiveness. The re-engineering will be done in two phases i.e. interim solution with possible improvements and fully re-engineered automated process,” said Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Kavan Ratnayaka Chairman UDA, Jagath Munasinghe said that this agreement was a ground breaking one. “The UDA has also now stopped paper applications for approvals and we are only accepting online applications for approvals.”
Acting Mission Director USAID, Elizabeth Davnie said that this is step taken in the right director and they would also support more initiatives of this nature by other Sri Lankan entities. “We are also supporting this project by way of providing the necessary ICT based infrastructure and other assistance.”
After the approval process is fully streamlined, the average number of days required for the Preliminary Planning Clearance will reduce from 59 days to 25 days. The number of days required for the Development Permit Process will reduce from 100 days to 30 says while the number of days required for the Certificate of Conformity will reduce from 85 days to 30 days.
Director General SLTDA P. U. Rathnayake said that there were over 420 investment proposals for tourism projects but they could expedite only around 220 out of them due to various delays. “SLTDA is planning to get more line Ministries involved in this ‘speedy approval process scheme’ so that there would not be any uncalled for delay sin approvals in the future.”
“One Stop Unit of the SLTDA will be able facilitate the entire approval process which includes Preliminary Planning clearance (PPC), Development Permit (DP) and Certificate of Conformity (CoC).” (SS)
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