*COLOMBO – Chinese state-owned company marked on Wednesday the completionof an ambitious land reclamation adjacent to Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo,part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative that hasalarmed India and the West.*
“Colombo Port City is an important project of the One Belt, One Roadinitiative in Sri Lanka, which is one of the key countries along themaritime silk route,” China’s ambassador Cheng Xueyuan said at a ceremony.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China alwaysfacilitates great importance to Sino-Sri Lanka relations and activelyimplements the consensus of the leaders of the two countries,” he added.
The $1.4 billion Colombo Port City was agreed between China and Sri Lanka’sformer president Mahinda Rajapakse, one of several projects to raise fearsthat the strategically important location was falling into Beijing’s orbit.
On another, the $1.4-billion Hambantota deep-sea port also built by theChinese, China in December 2017 was given a 99-year lease after Colombosaid it was unable to keep up with servicing loans made by Beijing to payfor it.
The nearby Hambantota airport also funded by China and built in Rajapakse’sconstituency in the middle of two wildlife sanctuaries has turned into awhite elephant, with no scheduled flights.
Two-thirds of the new 269 hectares (664 acres) reclamation project which isenvisaged as the site of a new financial district and has worriedenvironmentalists, goes to China on a 99-year lease.
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Patali Champika, the minister in charge of the project, said however thatthe reclaimed area would not be a threat to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty orundermine the security of regional power India.
The port of Colombo is a key hub for Indian import-export cargo, and thenew real estate is situated at the entrance.
China has also emerged a key political and financial backer of Sri Lanka,dislodging Japan which used to be the biggest funder of infrastructure suchas ports in the island nation.
Finance ministry officials said the Bank of China had offered Colombo a$1.0 billion loan to shore up its foreign reserves amid an exodus offoreign capital from Sri Lanka’s bond and equity markets.
The Chinese funding becomes crucial at a time when three internationalcredit rating agencies downgraded Sri Lanka after a political crisis inlate 2018. -APP/AFP
