Sri Lanka Sees Foreign Investment Quadrupling as Civil War Ends

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka expects foreign direct investment to more than quadruple to $4 billion by 2012 as the end of a 26-year-old civil war leads to political stability.

“Interest in Sri Lanka is tremendous now,” Dhammika Perera, chairman of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, said in an interview in Colombo yesterday. “The end of the war has put the country on the radar of global companies.”

Clothing manufacturers and hotel operators are scouting the nation for investment opportunities after the military defeated rebel Tamil Tigers last month, Perera said without naming the companies. President Mahinda Rajapaksa may still have to find a settlement to the separatist demands of the ethnic Tamils to secure lasting peace and build investor confidence.

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