Malaysia leads investment flows into Sri Lanka for second year, Asia in investment boom

Oct 18 (LBO) – Malaysia will lead foreign investment into Sri Lanka for the second year running led by telecoms and infrastructure, as developing countries emerge as top investors in the region. The third world has emerged as significant global investors, the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development, said in its latest investment report, led by tiger economies China and Hong Kong as well as India.

Other Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have also made the list, investing billions of dollars overseas – much of it in the region.

Malaysia invested 44 billion dollars in South Asia last year and topped Sri Lanka’s list of investors in 2005 with nearly 100 million dollars to oust the United States off the top spot.

Malaysia will most likely be Sri Lanka’s largest investor even this year, largely due to a 150 million dollar investment from Dialog Telekom, Nihal Samarappuli, Executive Director Research at Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment, said Wednesday.

Sri Lankan mobile telecom company Dialog is owned by Telekom Malaysia.

Last year, following Malaysia was Singapore with 30.6 million dollars, the United Kingdom with 26.3 m