{"id":109497,"date":"2020-12-08T16:46:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T23:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109497"},"modified":"2020-12-08T16:46:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T23:46:22","slug":"sri-lanka-gets-usd300m-chinese-factory-near-key-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/08\/sri-lanka-gets-usd300m-chinese-factory-near-key-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka gets USD300M Chinese factory near key port"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Borneo Bulletin<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>COLOMBO (AFP) \u2013 Sri Lanka announced yesterday the first large-scale Chinese investment in manufacturing in the country, a USD300-million tyre factory near a strategic deep-sea port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Western nations, as well as regional power India, have long been concerned about Chinese influence in Sri Lanka through projects under its gargantuan Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The factory will be adjacent to the Hambantota port, which was leased to a Chinese company in 2017 after Sri Lanka failed to service the USD1.4-billion debt from Beijing used to build it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s Cabinet approved the setting up of the tyre plant under legislation that allows generous tax concessions, Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said Shandong Haohua Tire Co Limited will export at least 80 per cent of production, with the option of selling the rest on the local market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The announcement came just weeks after Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa unveiled the country\u2019s 2021 budget, banking on a huge Chinese real-estate development in Colombo to attract more investment and revive the island\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Colombo Port City \u2013 a USD1.4 billion land reclamation project which started in 2014 \u2013 has doubled the size of Sri Lanka\u2019s current financial district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Rajapaksa was president between 2005-15, Colombo borrowed billions from China, accumulating a mountain of debt for a string of infrastructure projects \u2013 including an international airport dubbed the world\u2019s emptiest\u201d by media for its lack of flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/borneobulletin.com.bn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Page13-G_09122020.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-406594\"\/><figcaption>The Hambantota port. PHOTO: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Borneo Bulletin COLOMBO (AFP) \u2013 Sri Lanka announced yesterday the first large-scale Chinese investment in manufacturing in the country, a USD300-million tyre factory near a strategic deep-sea port. Western nations, as well as regional power India, have long been concerned about Chinese influence in Sri Lanka through projects under its gargantuan Belt and Road [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}