What is ViYASA? Sri Lanka's National Business Facilitation Centre

ViYASA is the National Business Facilitation Centre (NBFC), a unit under the Presidential Secretariat. It opened in Colombo on 22 September 2026 to help businesses and investors get unstuck when a government approval or process stops moving.

This guide covers what ViYASA does, who it is for, what it doesn't do, and how to raise an issue with it.

Watch: ViYASA on the Bizadvisor podcast

We spoke to Seevali Arukgoda, Senior Additional Secretary to the President and Head of the National Business Facilitation Centre, and Dasun Rajapaksha, Senior Assistant Secretary to the President, about how the centre works. The episode is in Sinhala.

Key points from the podcast

• Why it was set up. Sri Lanka's growth targets for 2030 include a GDP of USD 120 billion and USD 36 billion a year in export earnings. Reaching them needs new businesses and existing ones to expand. But dealing with state institutions is often slow, the procedures are complex and not published anywhere, and nobody can say how long things take. Some people give up on a business even with the money to start it. The centre was the President's idea to fix that.
• You don't need to visit. Problems are submitted through the online request form. The team actively tells people not to come in person, which matters for businesses far from Colombo.
• What you need to submit. The business should be registered. Beyond that, you only attach the documents that relate to the problem and the institution involved.
• What phase 1 covers. If an institution delays, holds back or won't decide on an approval, certificate or registration, the centre steps in, works with that institution and pushes for a clear answer. As the hosts put it, if something can be done the institution should say yes, and if it can't, it should say no.
• Results in the first month. By about 22 October 2026 the centre had received 115 issues and solved 69, about 60%. Most open cases involve land, bank loans, agency delays, and legal or policy problems. Some are 10 to 15 years old, or tied to court cases or earlier Cabinet decisions, so they take longer.
• When a problem can't be solved. It goes to the National Steering Committee, chaired by the Secretary to the President, whose members are the secretaries of the relevant ministries and the heads of the agencies. Where a law or policy is the blocker, the committee recommends changes to the government. The President receives a daily summary of the complaints received and how they were handled.
• Phase 2. Within about one and a half to two years, the centre plans to become a full one-stop shop. An investor would come to ViYASA with a project proposal and registration application, and the centre would handle every agency from then on, including electricity, water, environmental approvals and bank loans. An online system for tracking each case from home is being built.
• No contacts needed. Until now, getting a problem solved often meant knowing someone inside an institution. With ViYASA, you don't need personal connections.

What ViYASA does

ViYASA doesn't replace the institutions you already deal with. It sits above them and gets them to act. The President's Office describes it as a special task unit set up to modernise Sri Lanka's investment environment.

In practice, it works on three things:

• Stalled approvals. When an application is stuck with a regulator, ViYASA steps in and pushes it forward.
• Disputes between agencies. Some projects need sign-off from several institutions, for example on land, utilities or infrastructure. ViYASA coordinates them so one agency is not waiting on another.
• Manual processes. It aims to move paper-based steps to digital workflows.

The government has named land, Sri Lanka Customs procedures and access to finance as the main problems investors raised. Land is a good example: a single parcel can involve several institutions, and delays there have pushed some investors to look at other countries.

Who it is for

ViYASA is open to businesses, investors, exporters, and local and foreign entrepreneurs. It covers new businesses and existing ones that want to operate or expand.

Chambers of commerce asked for a centre like this, and officials say it was designed with SME development in mind. You don't need to be a large foreign investor to use it.

What ViYASA doesn't do

It helps to be clear on this before you contact them:

• It doesn't fund businesses. There are no loans or grants. Finance is an area it helps with, by coordinating with the institutions involved, but it doesn't lend.
• It isn't a registry. You still register your company with the Registrar of Companies, your taxes with the Inland Revenue Department, and your employees with EPF and ETF.
• It doesn't replace the Board of Investment. BOI approvals and agreements still go through the BOI. ViYASA can help when one of those processes stalls.

So ViYASA is for the problem you hit after you've applied through the normal route and it has stopped moving.

How to raise an issue

You don't need to visit in person. Submit your issue through ViYASA's online request form, and the centre then works with the relevant institutions for you.

Submit an issue to ViYASA →

Your business should be registered, and you only need to attach the documents that relate to the problem and the institution involved.

Before you submit, gather what you'd need to explain the case quickly:

1. The application or request that is stuck, with its reference number.
2. The institution it is with, and the dates you submitted and last followed up.
3. Your company registration details and any approvals you already hold.
4. Letters or emails from the institution, especially any refusal or request for more information.

If a problem can't be solved through normal channels because it needs a legal or policy change, the centre can refer it to the government with proposals through its national committee, chaired by the Secretary to the President.

What's coming next

Two features have been announced but are not live yet:

• Online tracking. A system for investors to follow the status of their applications in real time.
• A one-stop shop. In phase 2, expected within one and a half to two years, ViYASA plans to handle everything from the project proposal and registration through to utilities, environmental approvals and bank loans, so investors deal with one place instead of many agencies.

In its first month the centre received 115 issues and solved 69, according to its head on our podcast. It hasn't published standard processing times yet. We'll update this post when it does.

Where Bizadvisor fits

ViYASA helps when government processes stall. Most businesses need the everyday work done correctly first, and that's what we do: company registration, the company secretary role, annual returns, beneficial ownership filings and tax registrations.

A business with its filings in order also has a cleaner case if it ever needs to go to ViYASA.

• Starting out? Read how online company registration works.
• Investing from abroad? See starting a Sri Lankan company from overseas and registering as a foreigner.

Talk to us about setting up your company →