Sri Lanka opens ‘ViYASA’ centre to fast-track business and investment approvals

Sri Lanka’s “ViYASA” National Business Facilitation Centre (NBFC) has been opened in Colombo to help businesses and investors overcome administrative and regulatory barriers involving government institutions.

The Centre, established under the Presidential Secretariat, was opened yesterday morning (September 22) under the patronage of Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Anil Jayantha Fernando, and Secretary to the President Dr Nandika Sanath Kumanayake.

Established on a concept of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the Centre aims to bring about a positive transformation in Sri Lanka’s industrial sector by helping businesses resolve problems that arise when dealing with government institutions.

It will coordinate with relevant state institutions to speed up processes and provide facilities required when starting, operating and expanding businesses.

The “ViYASA” National Business Facilitation Centre is located at Building C-80, Hector Kobbekaduwa Mawatha, Colombo 07, and is headed by Senior Additional Secretary to the President Seevali Arukgoda.

Its official website, nbfc.presidentsoffice.gov.lk, was also launched during the opening.

Speaking at the event, Minister Sunil Handunnetti said the establishment of such a Centre had long been requested by chambers of commerce, exporters and entrepreneurs.

He said work towards establishing an institution of this nature had been carried out over the past two years, noting that the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development had to work with many other ministries and institutions to provide the facilities required by investors.

Handunnetti said one of the main difficulties was the inability to provide those facilities quickly enough.

He said Sri Lankans living overseas and foreign investors had brought investments into Sri Lanka due to political stability and what he described as fairness in the application of the law, resulting in a large number of investment requests.

According to the Minister, one of the biggest obstacles faced by investors is obtaining land. Land is controlled by several institutions, while some vacant land is involved in legal cases, making it difficult to make suitable land available quickly.

He said investors would not wait indefinitely for land to be cleared and could instead move their investments elsewhere.

Handunnetti also identified access to financial facilities and issues relating to Sri Lanka Customs, including the need to simplify Customs procedures, as other major challenges.

He said investors and entrepreneurs were now prepared to pay taxes and had greater confidence that they would receive benefits in return, but still faced difficulties in completing the required processes.

The Minister said the new Centre would help address these issues.

He also said using premises that had previously been used as ministerial residences for such a purpose was a productive step.

According to Handunnetti, ViYASA will operate as an independent institution under the supervision of the Secretary to the President while supporting the work of the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development.

He also said the government would work to prevent a decline in Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings next year by attracting new investment into several sectors.

Plans include implementing the National Mineral Resources Policy to attract investment into the mineral resources sector and developing Sri Lanka as an international gem and jewellery hub.

Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Anil Jayantha Fernando said the economy would be a key pillar in the government’s planned transformation of the country and that both economic growth and economic development were necessary.

He said the government had spent the past two years addressing problems faced by investors and businesses, although several challenges remained.

Fernando said global economic uncertainty also needed to be considered and that the government was closely monitoring developments relating to foreign exchange, exports, import revenue and the financial sector.

He described the NBFC initiative as a mechanism to facilitate business and invited entrepreneurs and investors to engage with the Centre.

Secretary to the President Dr Nandika Sanath Kumanayake said the establishment of the Centre addressed one of the country’s major needs at a time when the economy was expanding.

He said further economic expansion required the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, while Sri Lanka also needed to increase its focus on exports because of limitations in the domestic market.

Kumanayake said the Centre had been designed with those requirements in mind.

He said ViYASA was not an ordinary “One-Stop Shop”, but a Centre intended to bring several ministries together and change existing systems so entrepreneurs could resolve their problems more easily.

The Centre will seek to provide the maximum possible service to entrepreneurs through closer coordination between the public and private sectors.

Senior Additional Secretary to the President and head of the NBFC, Seevali Arukgoda, said the Centre was designed after examining international indicators relating to the ease of starting and operating businesses.

He said Sri Lanka was ranked 79th in 2025 under the indicators he had examined, while Singapore was ranked first.

Arukgoda said sub-indicators showed the time taken for processes such as acquiring land and registering a business, leading the Centre to focus on making such procedures easier.

He said all activities of the Centre would begin immediately, with its services being made available to the public to support the government’s expected economic transformation.

A key feature of the service is that entrepreneurs will not be required to visit the Centre in person.

They will be able to submit their problems and relevant documents remotely, after which the NBFC will coordinate with the relevant government institutions on their behalf and take steps to resolve the issues.

Arukgoda said legal or policy-related problems that could not be resolved through the normal process would be referred to the government with proposals through the National Operations Committee of the National Business Facilitation Centre.

He said the Centre would seek to provide the facilities needed to create new businesses while helping existing businesses expand and continue their operations more easily.

Chairman of KIK Business Group Lalith Kahatapitiya described the opening of the Centre as the fulfilment of a long-standing expectation of the business community and thanked the President for establishing it.

He also urged businesses to make use of the opportunities provided through the Centre.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chathuranga Abeysinghe, Western Province Governor Hanif Yusoof, Central Bank Governor Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Dr Harshana Sooriyapperuma, ministry secretaries, heads of relevant institutions including the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, and members of the business community were also present at the event.