President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the government will move to pass an Investment Protection Act in Parliament “swiftly” to safeguard foreign investors, framing the law as part of a wider push to insulate Sri Lanka from a potential dollar crisis driven by regional instability.
Speaking on Friday at the start of construction on the second phase of Section 3 of the Central Expressway, from Rambukkana to Galagedara, the President said emerging regional crises could put pressure on the country’s foreign reserves and that boosting foreign direct investment was essential to absorb such shocks.
“There is a risk of a dollar crisis emerging, and we need a proper plan to address it,” he said, citing barriers within state institutions and land-release mechanisms as obstacles to FDI. Beyond the Investment Protection Act, he said the government planned to establish a single-window system letting investors complete approvals through one platform.
Dissanayake also warned that nearly 25% of Sri Lanka’s exports currently depend on the United States, making diversification a national priority. “We must diversify our exports by expanding into a greater number of countries… We also need to diversify the range of products we export,” he said, calling for stronger import-substitution industries alongside the export push.
The remarks land at a politically charged moment for trade policy: the Trump administration’s 50% tariff on Iran weapon suppliers and broader Middle East escalation have already pushed the monthly fuel import bill above $886 million. The FDI pitch follows months of BOI groundwork on German investor engagement and last week’s Sri Lankan-German Business Forum at ITC Ratnadipa, which targeted maritime and logistics FDI as the headline growth vector.
Source: Ada Derana.
