The Government last week gazetted the ‘Colombo Port City Economic Commission’ Bill to establish a Special Economic Zone within which there is ease of doing business that will attract new investments.
The new Bill has been published under the orders of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and it will be presented to Parliament for the First Reading shortly.
The ‘Colombo Port City Special Economic Zone’ will be an international business and services hub with specialized infrastructure and other facilities to promote and facilitate economic activities. It will facilitate international trade, shipping logistic operations, offshore banking and financial services, information technology and business process outsourcing, corporate headquarters operations, regional distribution operations, tourism, and other ancillary services.
The Zone will facilitate the diversification of the service economy and will promote the inflow of foreign exchange while generating new employments.
The Bill will establish a Commission to grant registrations, licenses, authorizations and other approvals to carry on businesses and other activities in the Zone. The Commission will consist of not less than five members and not more than seven members who will be appointed by the President.
It will also provide for the identification of a Single Window Investment facilitator to promote ease of doing business within the Zone while determining and granting incentives and other exemptions to promote businesses of strategic importance.
