Minister Yapa inspects BOI Kandy Industrial Park; meets investors

Anura Priyadarshna Yapa, Minister of Enterprise Development Investment Promotion and Information and Minister of Mass Media and Communications recently visited the Board of Investment’s Kandy Industrial Park.
He was accompanied on this visit by B.H.M Rathnasiri, Secretary, Ministry on Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dhammika Perera, Chairman/ Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, and senior officials of the BOI including Deputy Director General (Investment & Promotion) A.M.C Kulasekera and Deputy Director General (Infrastructure) L.D.Dickman.

Minister Anura Priyadarshna Yapa during his inspection tour

Minister Yapa chaired a meeting where many of the leading entrepreneurs in the Kandy Industrial Park participated. This was an interactive meeting with investors at the zone and discussed some of the challenges they face.
These included issues relating to exchange rates, Labour flexibility, telecommunications, power supply, transporting goods and ground rents.
Minister Yapa expressed his satisfaction in being able to hold this interactive meeting between the BOI with enterprise representatives as it provided an excellent platform to resolve issues.
After the meeting the Minister visited Tandon Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a BOI enterprise located in the KIP specialising in manufacturing computer memory chips, and Elsteel (Pvt) Ltd who produce Steel Electrical Panels.
The Kandy Industrial Park was established in 1995. The Industrial park has a total extent of 205 Acres. There are currently 20 factories located in the zone, which employ a total of 6,317 workers. The enterprises are engaged in many industrial sectors such as manufacturing garments, computer components, screen printing, food processing, steel products, tyres, packaging materials, Spices and herbal products, Steel Furniture, Stainless Steel Tubes.
Exports earnings from the zone were valued in 2008 at Rs. mn. 10,427. Import values in 2008 Rs. totaled Rs mn 5,616.
There are altogether 178 BOI Projects in commercial operation in the Central Region. Sectors which are engaged in Exports, Tourism, Agriculture, Mini hydropower, Services, Dairy and Livestock breeding and other sector. A total of 54 Projects are at various stages of implementation.