[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
After several months of delay caused by protests, Sri Lanka today finally signed a USD 1.1 billion deal with China to lease the southern Hambantota port to Beijing.
The amended agreement was signed between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the China Merchant Port Holdings at the Ministry of Ports and Shipping under the auspices of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. “We are giving the country a better deal without debt,” Wickremesinghe told media. Sri Lanka’s government said that money from the deal will help repay foreign loans.
Under the proposal, a state-run Chinese company will have a 99-year lease on the port and about 15,000 acres nearby for an industrial zone. The plan envisaged the eviction of thousands of villagers but the government said they will be given new land. The deal had been delayed by several months over concerns that the port could be used by the Chinese military. In a move to ease those concerns, the Sri Lankan government announced a revised deal to cut the Chinese firm’s stake to 70 per cent.
The Sri Lankan government said that China will run only commercial operations from the port, on the main shipping route between Asia and Europe and the deal will help it to get out of the debt trap.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
