SINGAPORE’S DIRECT INVESTMENT IN SRI LANKA: PAST EXPERIENCE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Author: 
Tilak Abeysinghe, Ananda Jayawickrama
JEL codes: 
Description: 
Paper No. 2008/01 - February 2008
Organisation: 
Abstract: 

Apart from aggregate accounting of Singapores investment abroad, case studies on the performance of these investments in individual countries hardly exist. This paper is an attempt to compile such a study by focusing on Singapores investment in Sri Lanka. Singapore is one of the largest foreign investors in Sri Lanka though Sri Lanka is a small recipient of Singapores total overseas investment. The bulk of Singapores investment in Sri Lanka has been in service industries. As usual these investments have created many employment opportunities. However, because of high import dependence the Singapore firms in Sri Lanka have begun to generate trade surpluses only recently. Revealed comparative advantage indices combined with attractive fiscal incentives and low-cost factors of production indicate that there are large investment opportunities in the manufacturing sector that remain to be exploited. The ongoing war obviously has deterred the expansion of Sri Lankas FDI base to its full extent.