Aviation and Investment Zone Development State Minister D.V. Chanaka said more than 15,000 PCR tests have been done within the factories under the BOI in the past few days following the second wave of Corona.

Of this amount 10,000 tests have been done within investment zones and 5,000 outside of investment zones. PCR tests have been conducted on workers covering each and every factory in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines. Chanaka said that the Ministry is focused on ensuring the safety of the workforce as well as continuation of the production process.

The State Minister said the BOI was alert to face the situation in an event such as this second wave occurred. He said many health safety programmes were conducted in every Investment Zone with the Health Ministry, the MRI, Public Health Officials and Public Health Inspectors.

All HR departments of the factories were instructed to update bio-data of all their employees. They were advised to work in smaller groups, strictly adhering to health safety guidelines and taking health precautions when going outside the Zone.

The State Minister said his ministry is focused on saving the country from the threat of COVID as well as maintaining the economic stability of the nation.

“We hope to increase export revenue. Export revenue of the country in 2019 was US$ 11.9 Billion and 70% of it has been through factories which are under BOI purview. More than 1,800 factories are contributing and a workforce of more than 500,000 are employed in these factories. Even amidst these turbulent times we were able to earn 1 Billion USD a month in the last three months in export revenue which is a great victory for the country. The country received orders from other countries as well,” Chanaka said.