Will Chinese investors quit if Port City comes to a standstill?
Posted on March 21st, 2015

Shehan Baranage reporting from Beijing, China.Courtesy Adaderana

The temporary suspension of the Port City project in Colombo has put lot of Chinese investors in uncertainty regarding the Sri Lankan investment policy.

The Sri Lankan media delegation currently visiting China was faced with a series of questions from Chinese investment giants  such as China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is constructing Sri Lanka’s port city project, and investment groups such as Shandong Hi-Speed Group, a Fortune 500 company that invests in a large number of infrastructure projects in China

This company is one of the leading infrastructure developers in the Shandong province of China which boasts China’s third largest GDP amounting to 968 billion US dollars. Furthermore Shandong province is among the large trade partners with Sri Lanka from China.

However, the foreign affairs office of the Shandong province has been deeply worried about future trade ties with Sri Lanka as they expresses fear that the island nation’s new government might reverse the investment policy of the country and thereby discouraging investor confidence.

The Deputy Director General of the Shandong provincial foreign affairs office Li Yongsen, speaking to Ada Derana, said that many investors in their province who are waiting to go visit Sri Lanka to invest have taken a step back with the latest developments in Sri Lanka especially after the government’s decision to temporarily suspend the Colombo Port City project, which is a US$1.4 billion direct foreign investment by the China Harbour Engineering Company.

Yongsen said that foreign investment policy should not be changed due to a change in government and that their concern is that the halting of projects would discourage confidence among potential investors from their province who were looking forward to investing in Sri Lanka.

He added that in 2014 Shandong province has approved investments amounting to US$ 9. 4 million to Sri Lanka but said that now it is up to the Lankan politicians if they are to attract Chinese investors from Shandong province.

For the last few days we have met with senior Chinese diplomatic officials in Beijing and almost all of them are very much concerned over the sudden change in treatment towards China.

However, despite their concerns over the developments in Sri Lanka, China has not completely withdrawn from its efforts in lobbying for the recommencement of the temporarily suspended project.

They still hope that the Lankan government will give the green light for the Colombo Port City project to recommence its work which had been temporarily suspended.

However, speaking to the various officials in the Chinese foreign office and the heads of leading investment companies it is evident that China might pull out from its existing investments projects in Sri Lanka and even discourage its investors from going to Sri Lanka.

One must not forget that China now tops the number of tourists arrivals to Sri Lanka which has gone up by 135 per cent in the last month compared to January this year and thereby keeping the confidence among the Chinese administrators would be of paramount importance if the tourist industry in the Indian Ocean Island is to prosper.

This was one of the fundamental points that Chinese authorities were highlighting before the Sri Lankan delegation of journalists.

Shehan Baranage reporting from Beijing, China.

8 Responses to “Will Chinese investors quit if Port City comes to a standstill?”

  1. Ratanapala Says:

    Sri Lanka is trying to trade a pot of gold for a night jar of Indian crap!

  2. Cerberus Says:

    Our people have never learnt their lessons. RW has let down the Sinhalese and the country again and again and yet the new President after a questionable election has unconstitutionally appointed him once more as Prime Minister. An entire Government has been set up after a Presidential election. Who gave My3 permission to do that? Did they forget what RW did with the LTTE and the Norweigians? My3 should remember the events quite well since he was there in the SLFP. RW had signed an agreement to give the North and the East to the LTTE I understand without showing the Parliament. Have our people forgotten how we got dud Radar detectors from India which resulted in LTTE aircraft flying in to the City of Colombo and bombing it. Most of the equipment and the drugs we we buy from India are dud. I agree with Ratnapala’s comment above.
    RW should have been taken to courts or had a commission of inquiry to evaluate all his actions before appointing him as the Prime Minister. It appears he is taking actions on his own without getting permission from the Parliament or My3. Is the SLFP majority in the Parliament deaf and dumb? Why are they so silent on all these goings on. At this rate the SLFP will cease to be a party that matters to people and will end up like the UNP.

  3. Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha Says:

    As I stated earlier Sri Lanka is important to China BUT SRI LANKA IS NOT INDISPENSABLE TO CHINA.

    NOW THE BALL IS IN INDIA’S COURT. CAN INDIA FILL THE SHOES LEFT BY THE CHINESE? FOR IF INDIA CANNOT THEN THE DAMAGE CAN BE REPAIRED

    BUT THE COST NOW TO REPAIR SUCH DAMAGE CONTROL WITH CHINA MEANS THAT COLOMBO HAS TO ASSURE CHINESE INVESTORS AND BEIJING THAT THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN SRI LANKA AND CHINA CANNOT BE TAMPERED WITH AGAIN.

    POWERS LIKE CHINA SELDOM IF EVER GIVE A 2ND CHANCE AND WHEN THEY DO THEY EXPECT GUARANTEES OR SRI LANKA WILL LOSE ALL CREDIBILITY WITH CHINA FOR A LONG TIME.

  4. Lorenzo Says:

    Chinese investors SHOULD quit SL. Then these UNP fags will learn a lesson.

  5. Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha Says:

    Lorenzo
    What China is doing is far worse than quitting Sri Lanka

    China is engaging with another nation (Sri Lanka) using the courts. it is the most damaging act short of a war. China is fully engaging in Sri Lanka LEGALLY. SHE WILL WIN BECAUSE IT IS PART OF THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THAT PRIVATE COMPANY. IT IS BASED ON
    -A BREACH OF CONTRACT
    -PERFORMANCE:
    WHEN ONE PARTY PERFORMS AND ENTERS INTO A LIABILITY AND THE OTHER PARTY LATER ON BREACHES THAT CONTRACT WITHOUT DUE CAUSE AND AFTER THE 1ST PARTY HAS ALREADY WORKED ON THE PROJECT THEN THE 2ND PARTY WHO BREACHED THE CONTRACT IS LIABLE.
    THIS LEADS TO PENALTIES. IT SHOULD BE CLEAR ON THAT CONTRACT THAT VIOLATION OF IT WOULD LEAD TO A LAWSUIT.
    THIS PRIVATE CHINESE COMPANY HAS THE RIGHT TO SUE THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT OF COLOMBO AND GET RECEIVE THE DUE PENALTIES. JUST THE COST OF DEFENDING ONESELF WITH THIS CHINESE COMPANY IS GOING TO COST COLOMBO IN THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

    IS IS THE MOST AGGRESSIVE ACT CHINA HAS TAKEN AGAINST SRI LANKA IN OVER 35 YEARS AND THIS IS GOING TO DAMAGE RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER CHINESE INVESTORS.

    NOW SRI LANKA HAS NO ECONOMIC ALLIES EXCEPT FOR INDIA AND INDIA DOES NOT HAVE THE MONEY AS CHINA DOES. THE LAWYERS IN CHINA AND SRI LANKA WILL CONTINUE TO BATTLE THIS ISSUE AT A TREMENDOUS COST IN
    FINANCES
    LONG TERM RELATIONS
    STRATEGIC INTERESTS.
    BTW THIS IS WHAT I SUGGESTED THE BBS DO TO THE SRI LANKAN POLICE WHO ASSAULTED THEM IN KANDY.

  6. Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha Says:

    LITIGATION IS WAR BY ANOTHER MEANS

    EVEN IF COLOMBO GETS THIS CHINESE COMPANY TO WORK ON THE COLOMBO PORT DEAL IT WOULD MEAN

    A NEW CONTRACT WITH STRICTER TERMS. HIGHER INTEREST RATES AND AN END DEAL
    GREATLY LESSEN THE CHANCES THAT OTHER CHINESE COMPANIES WOULD ENGAGE IN CONTRACTS IN SRI LANKA

    NOW THAT I THINK OF IT I CANNOT REMEMBER WHEN CHINESE COMPANIES SUED A NATION. THIS MAYBE UNPRECEDENTED, NOT ONLY FOR SRI LANKA BUT FOR CHINA AND THE SUB CONTINENT.

  7. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Port city project halted on indian advice to traitors my3 and rw. Rw is an out and out traitor. He gave half the country to mala paharan on a plate. In the short time he been pm, he put a tamil as governor of CB. Now after doing a very damaging deal to the country he has disappeared. When these Sinhalese idiots going to learn these traitors’ actions?

    india want the Chinese out of Sri Lanka, then
    they can divide Sri Lanka and give to mala eelamists please tn voters. Also uk, us, etc. etc want Sri Lanka
    divided to get mala eelamist diaspora votes in their countries. Some of our stupid Sinhalese still thinks it
    is fashionable to support traitors like rw, my3, avamangalaya etc. They don’t understand how much damage they do
    to Sri Lanka, Sinhalese and the Buddhism by these traitors. When those idiots understand that, it will be too late.

  8. Leela Says:

    යමෙක් ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.4 ක් අායෝජනය කරන්නෙ අත ලෙව කන්නට නොවේ. ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.4 ක්වැනි මුදලක් අායොජනය කල පෝට් සිටි ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා අායෝජකයන්ට විශේෂ සහන දී තිබේ නම් එහි අැති විශාලත්වය සහ ප්‍රතිලාබ සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන එ් ගැන මම නම් පුදුම නොවෙමි.

    නමුත් යමෙකුට අවශ්‍ය නම් අායෝජක සමාගමට දී අැති සහන පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීමේ වරදක් නැත. පරීක්‍ෂකයන්ගේ තීරණය කුමක් උවත් පසු ගිය රජය අත්සන් කර අැති කිසිම ගිවිසුමක් හෝ කොන්දේසියකින් එ්ක පාක්‍ෂිකව බැහැර වීමට නව රජයට කල හැක්කක් නොවේ. මේවා දැන දැනම මොඩ මිනිසුන් චූන් කිරීම සඳහා රනිල්/සිරිසේන ඊනියා ‘යහපාලන’ රෙජිමය දුර දිග නොබලා පෝට් සිටි ව්‍යාපෘතිය තාවකාලිකව හෝ නවතා අැත. දිනකට ඩොලර් මිලියන 350ක පාඩුවක් අායෝජක සමාගමට සිදු වන පාඩුව අායෝජක සමාගම දැනටමත් ප්‍රකාෂ කර අැත. මෙය විහිලුවක් නොවේ. එම පාඩුව රජයට ගෙවීමට සිදු උවහොත් යහපාලන ගැන්සිය එයට වග කිව යුතු බවට මහජනයා ප්‍රසිද්ධයේ ප්‍රකිෂ කල යුතුය.

    උදාහරනයක් වශයෙන් අප කැමති උවත් අකමැති උවත් එජාපය විසින් ඉන්දියාවට පවරා අැති ත්‍රිකුනාමලයේ තෙල් ටැන්කි බදු ගිවිසුමෙන් බැහැර වීමට කිසිම නව රජයකට නොහැකිය. ත්‍රිකුනාමලයේ ප්‍රිමා කොම්පැනියට බදු දී අැති දේපොල වල අයිතිය ගැනත් එසේමයි. එම අායතන වල අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක වරුන් සහ සේවකයන් ක්‍රියා කරන්නේ ලංකාවේ නීතියට අනුවය. පෝර්ට් සිටි වලටත් නීතිය එසේ වනු අැත.

    චීනය යකෙක් බව පෙන්නා ශ්‍රි ලංකාවෙන් පලවා හැරීමට අධිරාජ්‍ය වාදී ගැත්තන්ට අවශ්‍ය වී අැති බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනේ. නමුත් කිසිම චීන-ශ්‍රි ලංකා ගිවිසුමක් අැමරිකා-කියුබා ගවුන්තනාමෝ කඳවුර පිහිටා අැති භූමියේ බදු කොන්දේසි මෙන් නොවන බව පැහැදිලි වන්නේ පොට් සිටි අායෝජකයා පුද්ගලික සමාගමක් වන China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) නිසාය. මා එසේ කියන්නේ අැමරිකානු සහ බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි රජයන් නොයෙකුත් රට වලට පැන කලා මෙන් දහ ජරා වැඩ මෙතුවක් කල් චීන කොම්පනි ලොකයේ කොහේවත් කර නැති නිසාය.

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