Sri Lanka to increase investment expenditure

COLOMBO: The government has decided to increase investment expenditure from this year to 2025 to revive the Sri Lankan economy, which was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, said the Secretary to the Finance Ministry S.R. Attygalle.

“Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance is prepared to maintain public investment expenditure at an average rate of 6 percent of GDP every year from now onwards,” he said.

The secretary said this while explaining the steps and programs being taken by the Ministry of Finance to rebuild the collapsed economy.

He said the Finance Ministry had already taken a number of steps to improve the country’s manufacturing and trade economic activities while preventing the collapse of local and global value chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The secretary also said that the Ministry’s biggest contribution in the past was to develop the infrastructure and investment facilities to help bring our products to the forefront of the international market with quality and standard.

The 2021 Budget introduces a series of reforms to optimize existing economies by providing the necessary investment facilities for infrastructure that needs to be rapidly upgraded so as to be able to repair the breakdowns in domestic as well as global value chains and further strengthen the relationship between those values.

Considering the long-term need for infrastructure related investments to further encourage private sector investment, Rs. 1,070 billion or 6.5 per cent of the budget is allocated for the digitalization and fulfillment of basic human needs, education and connectivity of the agriculture sector, health, education, e commerce and rural road development and drinking water facilities.

Further, in order to accelerate economic growth and encourage private sector investment, during the period 2021-2025 the GDP will be maintained at an average of 6.0 percent.