BOI and Austrade Hold Knowledge-Sharing Workshop on Foreign Direct Investment Promotion

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) hosted a tailored knowledge-sharing workshop led by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), focused on Austrade's strategy and practices for promoting and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The workshop follows an earlier session on Austrade's Trade Promotion and Facilitation programme. It forms part of an identified activity under the bilateral Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement (TIFA) Action Plan between Sri Lanka and Australia.

The session set out Austrade's approach to promoting productive FDI, its priority sectors, and its methods for implementation, targeting and investor engagement. Drawing on best-practice examples, the workshop took a practical approach designed to inform the ongoing development of BOI's own investment attraction strategy, as BOI seeks to expand its activities in areas of Sri Lanka's competitive advantage.

The Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mathew Duckworth, delivered the keynote address. He said:

"In my role here, I study the Sri Lankan economy a lot, and I see a lot of competitive advantage here... The way that Sri Lanka can maximize this is by ensuring you have domestic settings that will attract the investment... to enable you to harness the value from the competitive advantage you have in your skilled workforce and your strategic location in this part of the world."

The workshop was conducted by Andrew Carter, Trade and Investment Commissioner of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission. The Chairman of the BOI, Mr. Duminda Hulangamuwa, delivered the welcome remarks, underscoring the importance both institutions place on deepening bilateral cooperation on investment promotion.

Austrade is the Australian Government's national trade promotion and investment attraction agency, and is recognized as a leading investment promotion agency (IPA) globally. It takes a strategic focus on priority sectors and collaborates across levels of government and with industry to advance its investment attraction objectives.

As global investment patterns evolve, countries must compete more strategically to attract high-quality FDI that drives economic growth, job creation, technology transfer and sustainability outcomes. Stronger coordination, strategic planning and investor-servicing capabilities enhance the value that IPAs can deliver to international investors and can help unlock new investment projects and outcomes.

The programme covered the core elements of Austrade's FDI attraction strategy, including its priority sectors and international branding; how Austrade develops value propositions for investors around sub-sectoral opportunities and identifies target investors; Austrade's investor service delivery offering, including case studies and its digital tools and enablers; how Austrade operates across the investor lifecycle — promotion, attraction, facilitation, aftercare and retention; and Australian Government policy frameworks and initiatives that encourage investment and drive coordination across agencies.

Sessions through the day examined Austrade's strategy, structure and operating model in investment; the evolving global investment environment; investor services, pipeline management and digital enablers, illustrated with a case study from Austrade's India Investment Team; value propositions and targeting; and Australian Government policy frameworks and inter-agency coordination, with participation from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

The workshop is expected to deliver an enhanced understanding within BOI of Austrade's design and implementation of its investment attraction strategies, including sector-specific promotion and investor targeting; strengthened institutional capacity within BOI to engage with quality investments; and insights to inform value proposition briefs for Sri Lanka's mineral and education sectors.