The BOI has hoodwinked the masses

There was this notion that this is a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and therefore it is a good for this country. There can be nothing further than truth. The BOI through its projects have actually crippled the local economy, if you take the era before 1978 there were around 300,000 people employed in the handlooms sector and after the introduction of the garment industry the entire handloom industry suffered and has now been confined to a few hundred people. Fact remains that although there is an agreement between the BOI and a Foreign Investor, the amount that is agreed upon is never actually realised. If you look at the statistics it is crystal clear that although the publicised and agreed amounts are attractive and seem beneficial, the amounts that are in actual fact realised from these agreements are only between 15% and 20%.

If you trace the history of FDI’s, the catalysts for which was the environment laws that were put in force in the USA and the West. The moment these laws were brought in, the factories that were situated in these localities were re-located to Sri Lanka and other countries such as China and Korea. However, China and Korea ensured that they got the best out of these FDI’s by absorbing the technologies, innovative management methods and other such off- shoots of an FDI. In Sri Lanka, 60 % of our water resource has been plundered the environment is polluted and what we have received as a result of these FDI’s are very marginal despite repeated assurances that with the capital infused in to the economy through FDI’s there would be absorbing of such benefits such as technologies and management strategies. Besides, there is actually no reason for these FDI’s now because the simple fact is that these technologies and management strategies are not confined to a certain Multi National company and are freely available on the internet.