Help Rebuild Sri Lanka, Envoy Urges Malaysian Investors

By Ismail Amsyar Mohd Said KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysian investors can help Sri Lanka rebuild the country, which has been vastly affected by three decades of civil war, said Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Malaysia, K. Godage. He said there were many attractive sectors in which Malaysian companies could invest. "We need your expertise to help us identify the potential sectors that we may have missed out along the way," he said. The 76-year-old envoy said this to Bernama after a meeting with the national news agency's editor-in-chief, Yong Soo Heong; deputy editor-in-chief of the domestic news service, Zulkefli Salleh; and, deputy editor-in-chief of the international news service, Ahmad Zukiman Zain, here. He said Malaysian investors had tremendously helped in the reconstruction of Sri Lanka, which was economically affected by the war that ended in 2009. Godage said he was keen to attract more Malaysian investors because "Malaysian companies are important to us, and so are their products and services." He said the projects in which Malaysian companies could invest were in housing, roads, hotels, casinos and infrastructure. Other sectors included services, tourism, knowledge-based communication and telecommunication on a build-own-operate and build-own-transfer basis, he said. Godage said Sri Lanka offered a "good package," and that it wanted to deepen its relationship with Malaysia in the economic sector as well as human development. "We have to learn a lot from Malaysia, and we would like to have a closer interaction. We are also currently working to re-develop the Sri Lanka-Malaysia Joint Commission through building closer relationships with Malaysian agencies such as the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi)" he said. A fan of rambutans and mangosteens, Godage said, Mardi's research has made significant contributions to Sri Lanka's development efforts. "A Malaysian group has initiated the idea of growing limes on a large scale for export, using high-quality limes from Malaysian research bodies," he said. On Sri Lanka's policies to attract investors and boost trade, the high commissioner said the country aimed to be an investment-friendly trade destination, and would re-establish the one-stop centre to facilitate investor requirements. On education, Godage said the Sri Lankan government was currently working on student-exchange programmes and would provide sponsorships for international students wishing to pursue studies in Sri Lanka. "We would like to be a modern nation -- a nation with an information edge, like Malaysia. We will develop our people through the education system based on values that will help them relate to each other," he said. -- BERNAMA