Ease of Doing Business in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a middle-income country having a strategic location in Indian Ocean shipping lanes which gives regional logistical advantage. As envisaged in the government’s policy statement “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor”, government’s economic goal is to position Sri Lanka as an export oriented economic hub at the center of the Indian Ocean by improving trade logistics, attracting Foreign Direct Investments and boosting firms’ abilities to compete in global markets. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has recognized the need to foster private sector growth and export-orientation of the economy as a key element to attaining the overcharging objective of becoming an upper-middle-income economy.

In 2017, the Government of Sri Lanka articulated a Roadmap for investment climate reforms in the areas covered by the World Bank Group (WBG) Doing Business report with technical assistance from the WBG. The roadmap highlights recommended actions to be undertaken with key milestones and responsibilities across inter-agencies, appointment of taskforces covering each thematic area and provides recommendations on the organizational setup to coordinate and monitor the reform process.

Status of EoDBI Programme in Sri Lanka-

https://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/country/s/sri-lanka/LKA.pdf

During the period from 2011 to 2013 the EoDBI position of Sri Lanka reported for 89,83, and 85 respectively. However, during the period beginning from 2014 up to 2018 the rank for investment climate deteriorated continuously due to various reasons. Again in 2019 the EoDBI rank changed to a positive trend.

In May 2017, the Investment Climate Roadmap received the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers providing highest level endorsement to implement the Doing Business Reform Program in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the then Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade (MoDSIT) was tasked with coordinating and monitoring the reform program including establishment of an Investment Climate Secretariat at the Ministry.

Along with the administrative change in the Government in 2020, the task of spear heading the Doing Business Program was reassigned to the State Ministry of Money & Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms under the Ministry of Finance ensuring a similar setup which existed prior to the Government change. A Steering Committee headed by the Hon. State Minister and as members, the Ministry’s Secretary, Ministry’s Director General and Chairmen of task forces representing each thematic area composed the high-level reform implementation progress assessment mechanism including unblocking issues and bottlenecks paving the way to proceed with reforms implementation. Individual task forces are headed by the respective Chairmen and comprised of members coming under the relevant agencies who are entrusted with the technical level implementation of reforms.

Operational Framework of DBI Programme 

Task Forces for Implementation of DBI Programme

The State Ministry coordinated all government agencies relevant to doing business programme and completed doing business data submission for EoDBI-2022 based on the corresponding period of May 2020 to April 2021 on 28 th May 2021 through the online link provided by the doing business team. Altogether 24 reforms covering seven regulatory areas were submitted by the State Ministry on behalf of Sri Lankan Government. Though COVID-19 pandemic situation caused disruption to the economy as well as to the investment climate promotion activities, the State Ministry set a short-term plan to move up the EoDBI as much as possible in 2022 and has planned to upgrade its position within 60-70 among 190 world economies by 2025 as a mid-term target.