“In my meeting with the President, we discussed the need to have a sound macro-fiscal stability to attract foreign capital and provide medium- and long-term certainty,” said IFC Regional Vice President for Asia and the Pacific, Alfonso Garcia Mora. “The talks also focused on ways to maximize the potential of the country’s private sector to help address Sri Lanka’s challenges and achieve the inclusive growth the country needs.”
The comments by, came at the end of a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, which included a meeting with the President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Minister of Finance and other officials. Mora was accompanied by IFC’s Mohamed Gouled, Hector Gomez Ang and Lisa Kaestner. Also present was World Bank Country Director Faris Hadad-Zervos.
Garcia Mora said. “Our investment commitments in the past six months have targeted export-oriented industries. Since the onset of the pandemic, IFC has also played a strong countercyclical role in its financing and will continue to build on that program going forward.”
During his meetings, Garcia Mora highlighted IFC’s investment of $450 million during the first 18 months of the pandemic in Sri Lanka as a sign of IFC’s steadfast commitment to the country.
“We are working with the private sector in the country to create a robust investment pipeline and this can be accelerated with additional reforms in the infrastructure sector, allowing the private sector to play a bigger role,” Garcia Mora said. “IFC intends to invest a further $150 million during the current fiscal year ending in June 2022. Over the next five years, IFC is looking at an investment pipeline of more than $800 million, specifically in supporting growth-enabling sustainable infrastructure.”
While in Colombo, Garcia Mora also signed a cooperation agreement with John Keells Holdings (JKH) to develop a commercially viable and sustainable street market in Colombo 2, which will also promote women’s participation in hospitality and tourism.