China boosts investment in Sri Lankan mega-project
COLOMBO: China will invest $1 billion in the construction of three 60-storey buildings at a mega-project near Sri Lanka’s main port, Colombo said yesterday, as Beijing aims to boost its influence in the Indian Ocean.
The deal follows an earlier Chinese investment of $1.4 billion to carry out reclamation work for the wider Colombo International Financial City development, strategically located next to Sri Lanka’s harbour, the only deep sea container port in the region. The countries hope the project, initiated by former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse, will create a financial center in the Indian Ocean comparable with those in Singapore and Europe, drawing billions in foreign investment and thousands of jobs.
Sri Lankan officials said 60 percent of the 269 hectare (672 acre) reclamation, due to finish next year complete with yacht marina, had already been completed. No completion date was given for the buildings, the first for the development. “China Harbor (company) will put in $1 billion to build three buildings,” Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Minister Champika Ranawaka told reporters in the capital. “These three 60-storey buildings will be able to attract more foreign companies into Sri Lanka.” The controversial project was formally launched after a visit to Colombo by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014 but work was suspended by the new administration, which came to power in January the following year. It resumed after the state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) entered into a fresh agreement with the new government in August 2016, despite geopolitical concerns from regional super power India.