BOI bags ‘Best Investment Promotion Agency’ award
The Sunday Leader BUSINESS
14th December, 2003 Volume 10, Issue 22


THE Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka was awarded the ‘Euromoney Strategic Direct Investor’ (SDI) award for 2002 as the best Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) in the Indian subcontinent. Enterprise Development Minister, G.L. Peiris accepted the award on behalf of the BOI.

Chairman, BOI, Arjunna Mahendran was felicitated as the first runner up for the ‘CEO Lifetime Achievement Award’ and the BOI was also awarded the ‘Best IPA Website in Asia Pacific.’

The awards were presented by the Editor and Publisher, Euromoney Magazine, Samuel Passow. He commented that the awards were “both a reflection of the best practices adopted by the BOI and Mahendran’s desire to make Sri Lanka a major player.”

He further stated, “With its open economy, superb logistics for serving as a regional trade hub, resilient workforce and a ground-breaking Indo Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Sri Lanka BOI is promoting itself as the leading location of the Indian subcontinent.”

The SDI presented 20 awards this year all across the Asia-Pacific region to highlight the IPAs that offer a superior service to clients.

The assessment process considers both quantitative aspects in terms of the amount of dollars attracted and also qualitative aspects in the form of the impact that the investment carries with it in terms of the revenue it generates for the government, job creation, educational opportunities, export opportunities, creating additional investments amongst supplier groups, developing research and development capabilities and utilising special economic zones and regional development within a country.

The BOI website www.boi.lk was designed and developed by Efutures (Pvt) Ltd. and is a key investor resource that is used to handle activities such as inquiry processing, online applications for BOI accreditation and online payment facilities for foreign investors. The presentation of awards took place at a press conference held at the BOI auditorium at the World Trade Centre in Colombo on December 11.