Colombo Port City woos Indian companies with ‘India-plus-one’ pitch

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port City is stepping up efforts to attract Indian companies, positioning the 269-hectare services hub adjacent to the Colombo port, as an “India-plus-one” destination for business continuity, disaster recovery and global services operations.

Thulchi Aluwihare, Deputy Managing Director, CHEC Port City Colombo, said “we want to leverage proximity to India, connectivity and our investor-friendly regulatory framework to complement the operations of Indian companies rather than replace their existing bases in the country.”

Designed to attract high-value FDI, Port City Colombo facilitates sectors including financial services, IT and digital services, global trading, maritime and logistics, professional services, and regional headquarters operations.

Upon completion, the estimated $15 billion development is expected to generate significant employment, knowledge transfer, and long-term economic growth for Sri Lanka, he told businessline.

Aluwihare pointed to the presence of major shipping companies in Chennai and Mumbai as an opportunity for Port City to host smaller disaster-recovery or business-continuity centres.

Port City is being developed as a 100 per cent services-export zone and does not permit manufacturing. Among its key features for Indian businesses is the recognition of the Indian rupee as legal tender for transactions, although the US dollar remains the most widely used currency.

Indian companies can deploy any number of Indian employees, with no cap on foreign employees relative to local staff. The development also provides longer-duration visas, with employees eligible for five-year resident visas and directors and investors for 10 years, he said.

A dedicated international commercial arbitration centre has been established for disputes involving businesses operating within Port City. The Port City Economic Commission functions as a single-window investment facilitator for approvals. Companies operating within the zone also benefit from relaxed foreign-exchange rules, with the movement of capital into and out of the zone exempt from certain restrictions applicable elsewhere in Sri Lanka, he added.

Aluwihare said around 250 companies are currently operating under the Port City Special Economic Zone law, occupying about 1.3 million square feet of office space. While vertical development within Port City is still under way, these companies are currently operating from offices elsewhere in Colombo under the Port City framework.

India and the UAE are currently priority markets for Port City. About 20 per cent of the 250 companies are from the UAE, while Singapore is another significant market.

For Indian companies, Port City is pitching geographical proximity and connectivity as key advantages. Colombo is less than an hour’s flight from southern India.

“We are actively engaging with Indian companies and developers and was hoping to attract its first significant Indian investments,” he added.