Colombo, March 15 – Sri Lanka expects to raise around a billion US dollars from sales of non-strategic assets, this year, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.
The non-strategic firms will be sold through the stock exchange he said, the EconomyNext reported.
Among the firms mentioned earlier as being slated for sale are Hyatt Hotel, a unit of state-run Litro Gas; Hotel Developers, which owns the Colombo Hilton building, Grand Orient Hotel, a unit of Bank of Ceylon and Waters Edge, which comes under the Urban Development Authority and Lanka Hospitals.
Hyatt Hotel and Hotel Developers were expropriated by the ousted Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, violating property rights of people, and dealing a devastating blow to the safety of foreign and domestic investments in the country.
Water Edge was a private project built on state land sold under controversial circumstances and re-vested in the government by a court order.
(The pic featured above shows the Grand Hyatt Hotel under construction in Colombo)