Sri Lanka has invited Malaysian businesses to become partners in what it calls its next phase of growth, pitching a portfolio of investment-ready projects at a business networking event in Kuala Lumpur.

The event, themed “Business Beyond Borders”, was held on 22 September at the Commonwealth Club, Kuala Lumpur, and was reported by the Daily FT on Tuesday. The pitch is therefore a week old as reported; the filing, not the event, is what is new.

Who was there

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia Dharshana M. Perera made the case for Sri Lanka as an investment destination, pointing to political stability achieved through a democratic process and to the governance framework of the Clean Sri Lanka programme.

The event was organised by the Malaysia-Sri Lanka Business Chamber and the Malaysia-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce, with support from both countries’ diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur. It drew more than 75 business executives from manufacturing, tourism, IT, real estate and construction, consultancy, trading, and financial and banking institutions, along with Malaysian government agencies.

Organisational leadership came from MSLBC Chairman Anand Sharvanandan, Deputy Chairman Mahen Muthiah, and MVCC Vice President Kelvin Ling and Secretary General James Tan.

Two figures that do not match the record

Perera told the audience that Sri Lanka’s Fitch sovereign rating had been elevated from ‘CCC+’ to ‘B’ on 21 September, and cited projected economic growth of 5% through to 2030.

Both overstate the underlying data.

Fitch Ratings upgraded Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings to ‘B-’ — not ‘B’ — from ‘CCC+’, with a stable outlook. That is one notch lower than stated. The action was announced from Hong Kong on Tuesday 22 September, and was reported that day by EconomyNext, NewsFirst, Hiru News and the Daily Mirror.

Fitch’s own forecast is also below the figure quoted: the agency expects GDP growth to moderate to 4.1% in 2026 from a 5.0% average over the previous two years, and to run at just over 4% in the medium term. The 5% figure does not correspond to Fitch’s projection.

The Daily FT reported the remarks without qualification, and it is not clear from its account whether the error originated with the High Commissioner or in the write-up.

What was offered

Perera presented a set of “Ready to Invest” projects developed by the Board of Investment and the High Commission, covering energy, tourism, manufacturing, real estate, shipping and logistics, agriculture and IT. Each carried project locations, investment incentives, market growth trajectories, revenue models, and net present value and internal rate of return calculations.

He also invited Malaysian firms to SRI LANKA EXPO 2027, scheduled for Colombo from 14 to 17 January 2027, and argued Sri Lanka should be considered a dependable supplier of goods — citing IT services, boat and shipbuilding, gems and precious stones, fisheries, apparel and food products — offering access to a market of roughly 3.5 billion people across the EU, UK, India and Pakistan through Sri Lanka’s trade arrangements.

Not reported

The Daily FT did not report any investment commitments, memoranda signed, or Malaysian firms named as participants. No other verified newsroom had carried the event at the time of writing.