Officials from the Colombo Port City Economic Commission (CPCEC) will travel to Dubai on June 11 to meet potential Middle East investors, the regulator said, as Sri Lanka’s flagship special economic zone steps up its overseas marketing.
“We are meeting people in Dubai and the Middle East in order to demonstrate that Colombo Port City can be a supplementary zone of investment,” CPCEC Chairman Harsha Amarasekara told EconomyNext. The roadshow will be jointly organised by the CPCEC, master developer China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), the Sri Lankan Consulate General in Dubai and the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi.
Thulci Aluwihare, Deputy Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo, said the team had systematically narrowed down priority investment markets. “We have shortlisted and identified primary markets and we have combed the globe in that to say have a rationale behind why you would want to do certain things, a road show in a particular country,” Aluwihare said. “Once we kind of shortlist on that, then we aggressively go and market Port City — first Sri Lanka, then Port City.”
He acknowledged the marketing challenge facing the 269-hectare reclaimed development. “Sri Lanka is known in the world as a tourist destination, not essentially for a doing business capital. That is the narrative that we are trying to change.”
The Dubai trip lands as Port City builds momentum after a string of recent investment milestones, including strategic business status awarded to six firms for $14.6 million in announced FDI, and the Cabinet’s approval of a $15 billion vertical development pipeline covering office, residential and mixed-use towers.
Source: EconomyNext.
