STRONG GOVERNANCE GIVES CONFIDENCE TO INVESTORS - ITC CHAIRMAN

Sanjiv Puri, the immediate past of Confederation President of Indian Industry (CII) and Chairman and managing Director of ITC Ltd is in Sri Lanka leading a delegation of a dozen Indian business leaders for high level engagements.

- By Kelum Bandara

In an interview with Daily Mirror, Mr.

Puri talks about the investment climate in Sri Lanka, its potential for growth and plans for future investments. ITC Ratnadipa, a Luxury Collection Hotel, is his largest investment in Sri Lanka.

Excerpts of what he discussed:

When talking about Indian businesses and Indian investments in Sri Lanka, you have one of the largest Indian investments here. You initially started off this project. Then you had some issues initially. Now it is complete. In that context, how do you see the investment climate in Sri Lanka? I think, as you are aware, Sri Lanka went through a period of instability in between.

But now I think the recovery is quite commendable and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) itself has spoken about it and acknowledged it. So, certainly, I think the progress being made is appreciable. It is not just businesses here that are noticing it but more importantly, bodies like the IMF have acknowledged it. Your currency is stabilised.

So, macro stability has come in. That is the foundation for economic progress and macro stability. It's very much in the right direction. Of course, the journey of economic transformation is a marathon. It takes time. There are many steps involved in it.

But we see that a very strong focus on macro stability usher in a new era of economic development. We got this opportunity to interact with the President when he visited India.

We had in CII (Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)) the opportunity to host him for a round table of the leading business community in India. It was a very, very encouraging introduction. In fact, he invited all of us to visit Sri Lanka.

With the very positive message that he delivered there, I think that's encouraged a lot of businesses to come here. Today, we have a delegation of CII members that are here.