By Dr. Sarath Obeysekera

31/05/2026 Sunday observer  

The recent launch of Sri Lanka’s ‘Ready to Invest’ platform (readytoinvestsl.com) by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) is a positive and timely initiative that signals the country’s renewed effort to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into strategic sectors of the economy.

The platform showcases 30 structured, project-ready investment opportunities across high-growth sectors. More importantly, it sends a message to global investors that Sri Lanka is again open for business after years of economic instability.

The country continues to offer attractive investment conditions, including 100 percent foreign ownership in many sectors. 

The real challenge begins after the investment proposal is signed. Sri Lanka has historically been strong in preparing proposals, conducting investment forums, and promoting opportunities overseas. Yet many projects either progress slowly, become trapped in bureaucracy, or fail to achieve their intended industrial outcomes due to a lack of technical coordination and execution capacity.

The blue economy is not merely about ports or tourism. It includes shipbuilding, marine engineering, fisheries modernisation, offshore renewable energy, maritime logistics, ocean technology, coastal infrastructure, marine biotechnology, and value-added exports connected to the sea. 

Unfortunately, Sri Lanka’s institutional structure often operates in isolated silos.

The Export Development Board, BOI, port authorities, industry ministries, vocational training institutions, universities, and technical agencies frequently function independently with limited coordination. Investors are sometimes compelled to navigate multiple agencies separately, causing delays, confusion, and duplication.

Sri Lanka urgently needs a unified industrial investment task force operating under a coordinated national framework.

Such a structure should include centralised technical coordination units, rapid-response investor facilitation teams, and public-private technical advisory panels capable of assisting investors from the initial feasibility stage through to final implementation. Most importantly, experienced professionals from the private sector must be actively involved.

Sri Lanka possesses a wealth of retired engineers, industrial managers, marine specialists, shipbuilders, logistics experts, and international consultants with decades of practical experience locally and overseas. Many of these professionals understand global industrial standards, contract negotiations, technical due diligence, and project execution better than purely administrative institutions.

Private sector technical consultants can play a critical role in feasibility studies, investor negotiations, industrial master planning, vocational training development, engineering assessments, and business-to-business and government-to-government discussions. Countries that have successfully industrialised did not achieve progress through government administration alone.

Countries such as Singapore, Norway, Brazil, and the Gulf economies integrated government policy, technical expertise, industrial financing, vocational education, and private-sector execution into one coordinated national strategy.

Singapore transformed itself into one of the world’s leading maritime and logistics hubs not simply because of geography, but because it built technically competent institutions able to execute projects quickly and efficiently. Norway developed its offshore marine and energy sectors by combining engineering excellence with strategic state planning. Even the Gulf states aggressively employ international technical experts to accelerate industrial diversification.

The next phase of economic development cannot depend entirely on ceremonial conferences, political speeches, or attractive PowerPoint presentations. Investors today seek confidence in execution capability. They want assurance that approvals will move quickly, infrastructure will be delivered on time, and technically competent teams will support project implementation.

This means placing engineers beside diplomats, industrial specialists beside politicians, and technical consultants beside administrators.

Sri Lanka still possesses enormous, untapped potential in the blue economy due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, its maritime history, and its skilled workforce. But realising this opportunity needs more than ambition.

It requires coordination, competence, and a willingness to listen to those with real-world industrial experience.

The Ready to Invest” platform is a commendable beginning. The next step is ensuring that Sri Lanka is equally ready to execute.”

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera