The Malaysian government and the private sector were looking at investing nearly US$ 300 million on theme parks and other leisure sectors.

In addition Malaysian investors were also keen to invest in oil, gas and energy sectors in Sri Lanka, said Malaysian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Wan Zaidi Wan Abdullah at the Malaysian High Commission yesterday.

“We are encouraging Malaysian companies to engage in projects in Sri Lanka like the construction of power stations and construction and management of gas distribution terminals in the island. We are also looking at Hambantota for investment opportunities,” he said.

“Malaysian investments to other countries in 2016 was around US$ 115 billion. In addition Malaysian investments within Malaysia reached US$ 2 billion last year. We are hoping that part of this investment could be channeled to Sri Lanka in the future. We are looking at venturing not only into tourism sector businesses but leisure and theme parks and the discussions are undergoing now about the projects,” he said.

“I am trying my best to promote businesses between the two countries and encourage the advent of Malaysian commercial and residential integrated government development projects to Sri Lanka. My target is for the next few years to get more foreign direct investment from Malaysia to Sri Lanka.

The areas that we are looking at are telecommunication, construction, infrastructure, education and tourism. Now we are working hard to venture into healthcare and Malaysia’s expertise in running private healthcare service, supply of medical equipment and technical assistant to medical staff would be beneficial to Sri Lanka,” he said.

“We are working closely with the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and the exports are growing between the two countries and we are planning to open another 2,000 job opportunities to Sri Lankan workers this year in addition to the 6,000 Sri Lankan workforce in Malaysia,” he added.

The Malaysian High Commissioner added that bilateral relations with Sri Lanka were very cordial and friendly and the Malaysian Prime Minister was scheduled to visit Sri Lanka end of the year and with his visit they were planning to venture into various economic and other operations that collaborated with Sri Lankan effectively.

Source : http://dailynews.lk/2017/05/23/business/116674/malaysia-peg-us-300-mn-lanka%E2%80%99s-leisure-sector