-By Lanka-e-News Investigations Desk
(Lanka-e-News - 21.Oct.2025, 5.35 AM) For a country that desperately needs foreign investment to escape its debt trap, Sri Lanka has built one of the most investor-unfriendly bureaucracies in South Asia.
The Board of Investment (BOI), the supposed “one-stop shop” for investors, has become the “one-stop dead end” of economic progress. What was once envisioned as a dynamic, business-friendly gateway has degenerated into a fortress of red tape, inefficiency, and quiet corruption — guarded by officials who neither understand investors nor appear interested in them.
The irony is painful. The government of the National People’s Power (NPP) came to office pledging to reform state institutions, attract fresh FDI, and position Sri Lanka as a competitive regional hub. But inside the BOI headquarters in Colombo, the rhythm remains unchanged — a bureaucratic orchestra performing the same tired symphony of delay, arrogance, and obstruction.
Ask any investor who has tried to register a project through the BOI. The process begins with paying a non-refundable application fee, submitting a comprehensive proposal, and proving financial capacity. What follows next is a bureaucratic nightmare.
Files pass from one department to another. Each official raises a new query. Investors are called for meetings to “clarify details” that were already clarified months earlier. Then comes the due diligence phase, followed by an inter-departmental committee review, and then another internal “evaluation.” By the time a project reaches the final approval stage, an entire decade may have passed.
In an age when Vietnam approves foreign investment proposals within 72 hours and Dubai within 48, Sri Lanka’s BOI still takes years to process a single application.
The excuses vary — “We are reviewing,” “It’s under technical evaluation,” “We are waiting for a report.” But the result is always the same: delay, disappointment, and, eventually, withdrawal.
The result? Investors leave. Projects collapse. And Sri Lanka remains trapped in the same economic quicksand.
A confidential document seen by Lanka-e-News from the U.S. Treasury Department has raised serious questions about the BOI’s credibility and governance structure. The report cites “unnecessary procedural bottlenecks, opaque evaluation criteria, and a lack of inter-ministerial coordination.”
In diplomatic terms, that’s a polite way of saying: the BOI is corrupt, inefficient, and counterproductive.
The report notes that foreign investors have repeatedly complained of harassment, shifting goalposts, and “requests for informal facilitation” — a euphemism for bribes.
It also points out that while Sri Lanka continues to participate in investment forums abroad, the actual volume of FDI remains negligible. In 2024, the country’s total FDI inflow was barely US$740 million, compared to Vietnam’s US$36 billion and Bangladesh’s US$4.2 billion.
The current Director General of the BOI, Renuka Weerakoon, is now under intense scrutiny. Once a career bureaucrat in the public sector, Weerakoon was appointed to modernize the BOI’s operations. Instead, under her watch, the institution has ossified further.
Inside sources allege that she continues to rely on a small circle of senior officials — many of them holdovers from previous regimes — who are politically connected and resistant to reform.
Several investors, speaking to Lanka-e-News on condition of anonymity, claim they faced deliberate obstruction from BOI officers. One European investor said bluntly, “It’s like they don’t want investment. Every meeting is another delay. Every answer is another question.”
Another South Asian investor recounted how his proposal for a US$20 million export processing zone was stalled for two years because the BOI “lost” the file three times. “I could have set up three factories in Vietnam during that time,” he said.
Rumours are now swirling within Colombo’s business community that certain BOI officials, including senior executives, are working to discredit the NPP government by frustrating investors and creating the perception that Sri Lanka is ungovernable.
Sources inside the Ministry of Investment Promotion allege that Weerakoon maintains discreet communication channels with elements loyal to the previous SLPP Politicians — those who benefited from the patronage system during the Rajapaksha era.
If that is true, it is not just bureaucratic incompetence — it is economic sabotage.
The damage is measurable. In the first nine months of 2025, over 22 proposed foreign projects reportedly withdrew from Sri Lanka, citing “procedural paralysis.” Several high-value investors from the Middle East and East Asia have shifted focus to Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Every year, the BOI hosts glittering press conferences, publishes glossy brochures, and releases glowing annual reports claiming “historic investment success.” The Director General’s speeches are filled with optimism and self-congratulation.
Yet the numbers tell a grim story.
The institution spends millions of rupees on “investment promotion” tours abroad — often in five-star hotels, with delegations travelling to Singapore, Dubai, and London. But not a single large-scale investor has entered Sri Lanka in the past three years under BOI facilitation.
The few that did were forced to navigate impossible bureaucratic obstacles — pushing them toward private agreements directly with line ministries or regional authorities, bypassing the BOI altogether.
In short: the BOI is becoming irrelevant even within its own system.
Unlike corporate executives, BOI officials face no performance evaluation tied to investment outcomes.
No one asks:
How many projects have you approved this year?
How many have actually broken ground?
How many investors have walked away?
If the BOI were a private-sector company, it would have gone bankrupt long ago. But because it is a state institution, its inefficiency survives — funded by taxpayers and justified by bureaucracy.
The irony is unbearable: the very people tasked with attracting foreign investors live on salaries paid by the same public whose livelihoods depend on those investments.
If they fail to deliver, they should be replaced. That is how accountability works — in business, in governance, and in democracy.
Economic analysts now suggest that the government should issue a 90-day performance directive to the BOI.
Within that period, the institution should demonstrate tangible results — at least US$5 billion in investment commitments, signed and verified.
If it fails, the Director General and her senior team must be dismissed, and the BOI should be restructured into a private–public hybrid investment authority staffed by professionals with international exposure.
Sri Lanka cannot afford to have its economic revival hostage to bureaucratic incompetence.
Sri Lanka’s regional neighbours offer valuable lessons.
Vietnam: All foreign investment applications are processed through a digital single-window platform. Approval for non-sensitive sectors takes less than 72 hours.
Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) introduced online registration, allowing investors to complete procedures remotely.
Cambodia: Simplified land leasing and tax incentives attracted garment and manufacturing investors who once considered Sri Lanka.
Pakistan: Despite political turbulence, it established “Special Economic Zones” with fast-track approval.
Dubai: Business visas are processed within 24 hours, and industrial permits within 48.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s BOI officials are still asking for photocopies of passports and “letters of introduction.”
This is not just inefficiency — it’s economic suicide.
While investors wait years for approvals, BOI officials enjoy perks that rival private-sector executives — state vehicles, housing allowances, and international travel budgets.
Internal documents reviewed by Lanka-e-News reveal that in 2024 alone, BOI spent over Rs. 350 million on overseas promotional activities, most of which resulted in “no direct investment.”
One senior official, when confronted, said, “Promotion itself is an investment.”
Indeed. Promotion of themselves.
Behind the statistics and scandals lie the real victims — the Sri Lankan people.
Every foreign project that fails means lost jobs, lost exports, and lost revenue. Every delay costs the country months of progress.
When the BOI delays a factory, it’s not just a business that suffers; it’s a family that loses an income, a region that loses development, and a nation that loses credibility.
The BOI was created in 1978 as a pillar of economic liberalization. Forty-seven years later, it has become the symbol of stagnation.
Why hasn’t anyone been held accountable?
Because the BOI operates under political protection. Its top officials are shielded by ministers who view the institution as a diplomatic accessory rather than an economic engine.
Each government uses the BOI as a photo backdrop for foreign visits and investment summits. When deals collapse, everyone quietly blames “external factors.”
No one dares to confront the deeper truth — that the BOI has failed at its most basic mission: facilitating investment.
Reform is still possible, but only through radical restructuring. Experts propose:
Digitisation – Move all application and approval processes online.
Performance-based contracts – Tie salaries and promotions to actual FDI results.
Independent oversight – Establish an external audit team to monitor project delays.
International recruitment – Bring in professionals with private-sector investment backgrounds.
Transparency – Publish quarterly updates of pending, approved, and rejected projects.
If the BOI cannot reform, then it must be replaced. A new National Investment Authority (NIA), with both public and private governance, could be Sri Lanka’s only hope.
For all its speeches, slogans, and strategy documents, the BOI remains trapped in the same cycle of excuses.
The Director General must now answer three fundamental questions:
How many investments were approved during your tenure?
How many investors withdrew because of bureaucratic delays?
What concrete steps have you taken to improve transparency and efficiency?
If those answers are not forthcoming, she must do the honourable thing — resign.
The BOI was never meant to be a museum of bureaucrats. It was meant to be the heartbeat of Sri Lanka’s economic future.
It’s time for that heartbeat to return.
If Renuka Weerakoon and her team cannot deliver, they must step aside. Sri Lanka cannot wait another decade for another signature, another file, or another excuse.
The country needs investors — not bureaucrats.
And the people need results — not press conferences.
Lanka-e-News will continue to monitor the BOI’s conduct and publish all available documents, communications, and investor testimonies in the coming weeks.
Because accountability, after all, begins with exposure.
-By Lanka-e-News Investigations Desk
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by (2025-10-21 00:09:19)
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