Sri Lanka is grappling with a crippling economic crisis, with rising prices, food and fuel shortages, and the threat of a national default on the horizon. In this background, the tiny Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka is also constructing the Port City of Colombo (PCC) with the hopes of becoming a financial centre comparable to Dubai and Singapore.
The initiative is expected to turn Sri Lanka’s tourism and tea industry into a prosperous multi-services economy. The project is expected to cost $14 billion, with the majority of the money coming from potential investors who believe in the concept of the financial centre and want to set up shop there. To begin, China has contributed $1.4 billion to assist PCC in reclaiming 269 hectares of land on the Indian Ocean. In exchange, China has got about 116 hectares of the land there on a 99-year lease.
Port City Colombo is a public-private partnership project between the Sri Lankan government and CHEC Port City Colombo Pvt. Ltd, which is a subsidiary of China’s state-run infrastructure firm, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a company that is leading President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Despite the fact that China’s shadow hovers huge over the project, the Sri Lankan government is eager to see India invest significantly in the city. Despite the Rajapaksa government’s understanding of the ongoing border tensions between India and China. India, for one, is concerned about the initiative. According to a top-level source, New Delhi believes it is a component of President Xi’s BRI and has thus chosen not to make any public statements about the project indicating its “discontent and unhappiness.”
