Sri Lanka's president has surprised investors by embracing pro-market reforms in his first year, and plans fresh steps to boost investment and energy supplies after crippling shortages during the 2022 economic collapse, officials say.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's election promise to rework a $2.9 billion IMF bailout and seek better terms from creditors had raised investor concerns. But Dissanayake, who is also the finance minister, has largely honoured commitments made by the previous administration, including raising energy tariffs and dismantling the money-losing state power monopoly despite worker protests.
Government ministers and officials said some steps will be painful for many of the country's 22 million people in the short term, but help sustain the economy after the collapse a few years ago that led to mass protests, upended the country's politics and precipitated its debt default.
The Board of Investment is also attracting nearly $100 million across six projects to grow cannabis for medical oil exports to the US and Europe. Cultivation will begin in secured zones, initially using container-based pilots, Herath said.
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