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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Tuesday set up a special investment zone for Chinese companies as part of efforts to raise billion of dollars in FDI to boost its economy ravaged by decades of ethnic conflict.

“This is the first time the government has given a foreign country a specific area to develop and attract foreign investments into the country,” Investment Promotions Minister, Mr Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said.

Huichen Investment Holdings Limited of China was given the Mirigama zone, some 55 kilometres northeast of Colombo for a period of 33-years to allow companies from the country to operate in the zone.

Huichen is expected to spend $28 million to develop infrastructure in the zone in the next three years, Mr Yapa said.

Huichen's president, Mr Huang Yu Ping, said more than two dozen Chinese firms showed interest in setting up operations at the Mirigama zone.

Following the ending of the three-decades of ethnic bloodshed, the Sri Lankan government hopes to attract $1 billion in direct foreign investment this year, up from $800 million last year. - PTI

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