Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka's largest mobile-phone operator, announced plans in February to invest a further US$150m to strengthen its broadband and fibre-optic network. Dialog Axiata claims 7m subscribers in a market that boasted a total of 16.3m mobile customers in the third quarter of 2010. A rival operator, UAE-based Etisalat, announced in February that it hoped to add 170 new base stations by the end of April to expand its coverage in the north and east of the island.

Telecommunications companies are not the only ones that are planning large investments. In February the government announced that it had received a proposal from Mitchell Consortium, which comprises Australian, Sri Lankan and Brazilian firms, to invest US$700m in a heavy-industrial zone near the eastern port of Trincomalee. The zone would include coal and iron-ore plants for steelmaking, and also a sugar refinery. It is not yet clear how realistic the proposal is, but if successful it could serve as one of the government's flagship foreign investment projects.