Sri Lanka

English/Nat Almost as soon as a summit of South Asian leaders ended in July, the country's government declared a state of emergency. The summit had focused on the potential for greater economic co-operation between Sri Lanka and foreign investors. But the state of emergency will make it more difficult for businessmen to convince foreign investors that Sri Lanka is one of the best South Asian countries in which to invest. Repair work is still going on at Colombo's World Trade Centre. The centre was the target of a massive bomb ten months ago, blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels. More than ten million dollars has been spent to get things back to something resembling normality. Surrounding buildings and hotels still lie in disrepair, their windows shattered by the blast. The Trade Centre was intended as a symbol of Sri Lanka's economic ambitions. The business complex had only been open for three days when it was the target of an attack. Hussain Cassim is head of the company which owns the centre. The bombing was a big setback for attempts to persuade businesses that Sri Lanka was a good place to do business. He says foreign companies are waiting for the day when the separatist conflict comes to an end. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Realising the fact that we are undergoing a serious ethnic problem, I think we are doing reasonably well. I think the moment that it's not there we are in a takeoff situation, you see." SUPERCAPTION: Hussain Cassim, Director, Overseas Realty Analysts say that despite the conflict, Sri Lanka's economy is still doing remarkably well. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Sri Lanka is able to grow very fast and I won't say that in the current global environment where there is a lot of competition to attract foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment. We could show high growth rates as some countries show during the sixties and seventies. But reasonably high growth rates we could achieve and we could achieve the status of a middle income country very soon." SUPERCAPTION: Dr Saman Kelegama, Institute of Policy Studies The statistics support this view. Rising prices for tea, lower inflation and high productivity helped Sri Lanka's economy grow by 6.4 per cent in 1997. The sale of state-run companies to local and foreign companies also fetched 357 (m) million U-S dollars. Apart from some high profile bombings, Colombo, the capital, has largely been isolated from the conflict in the north and east. The business community is hoping to capitalise on this by developing the city's port into one of the strongest in South Asia. One of the key investors involved says the area is going to transform the country. SOUNDBITE: (English) "When completed will be the single largest investment Sri Lanka has attracted and would certainly take Sri Lanka into a different or to a higher plane. You may recollect that Singapore started off by developing their port and everything else fell into place thereafter so that is the sort of vision that the in which the government and those of us that are involved in the project are working towards." SUPERCAPTION: Ken Balendra, John Keells Holdings The government and a consortium of local and foreign investors signed a 1 (b) billion U-S dollars agreement for the Colombo port privatization project. The consortium is led by Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., P&O;. Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to open up its economy. Tourism has yet to revive to its highest levels, but the number of visitors is increasing after the last bombing. Sri Lanka's business community is frustrated by the conflict, but is cautiously optimistic. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/acaf53df090bf18348b0c3a553841ca5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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