COLOMBO, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka received its highest ever foreign direct investments (FDI) of 2.37 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 38 percent from 1.78 billion U.S. dollars received a year earlier, the state owned Board of Investment said here Tuesday.

Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Champika Malalgoda said although the island country fell short of its target of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, the achievement of 2.37 billion dollars was the highest received in a single year.

Malalgoda said this year, Sri Lanka aimed to attract 3 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDIs and the country could achieve this with the projects in the pipeline.

One of the projects planned to kick off this year is an oil refinery in Mirijjawila, in Hambantota, in southern Sri Lanka, with an investment of 3.85 billion U.S. dollars.

Last year, the highest FDIs came from China, followed by India and Singapore.