{"id":111177,"date":"2021-01-30T17:56:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T00:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111177"},"modified":"2021-01-30T17:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T00:56:31","slug":"bring-in-immediate-legislation-to-nationalize-hambamthota-port-and-encourage-protect-foreign-direct-investors-on-new-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/30\/bring-in-immediate-legislation-to-nationalize-hambamthota-port-and-encourage-protect-foreign-direct-investors-on-new-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"BRING IN IMMEDIATE LEGISLATION TO NATIONALIZE HAMBAMTHOTA PORT AND ENCOURAGE \/ PROTECT FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTORS ON NEW PROJECTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka has gone to the extreme of free market economy. As a result, there had\nbeen a net outflow of foreign exchange and rapid depreciation of Rupee. \nSri Lanka has continued Late President Jayawardene\u2019s  Open Economy and\nmost recently former Prime Minister has transferred Hambanthota Port \nto China as an act of revenge against Rajapakse Regime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsituation is now convoluted with several demands from India, China, Japan and\nPakistan as a tit for tat strategy to buy our assets at a bargain price, when\nSri Lanka Rupee is hovering around Rs 200 per USD mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsale, lease, joint venture or BUILD OPERATE TRANSFER (BOT) arrangements are\nsuitable for an economy which is stable.  When the economy is\nstruggling to meet its ends, the crows are hovering around to catch whatever\nthey can get at a bargain price, at a cheap USD valuation.<\/strong> \nProfessional Property Valuers index asset valuation based on these factors,\nknowing well that the Assets are on the buyer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka must introduce legislations to Nationalize Hambanthota Port and all other\nAssets that have been sold, transferred, pledged to foreign buyers under sale,\nlease, joint venture etc.   Sri Lanka cannot afford to repatriate any\npercentage of net profits after tax and interests to foreign buyers, by way of\ndividends.  Under these arrangements the royalty payments are\nusually  an added cost to dividends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthe  proposed legislation to nationalize national assets, legal framework\nmust be established to encourage foreigners  for  new direct\ninvestments capital projects  on normal commercial terms. Sri Lanka\nhas  massive  untapped resources plus strong labour force. There are\nmany strategies and tools that can  be used to encourage such new foreign\ninvestments, including long term Investment Allowances, Tax Free Holidays,\nImport Duty relaxation, liberalised repatriation of royalties and profits,\nwhilst maintaining  the absolute ownership of the venture with the people\nof Sri Lanka.  The foreigners are eagerly looking for markets with\ninfrastructure facilities, resources and relatively cheap skilled labour forces\nfor long term investments.   Sri Lanka should eye for these avenues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under\nno circumstances  the state owned existing large or medium scale projects\nshould be in the hands of foreigners. It makes no sense whether it is 1% or\n49%, if the total ownership is not vested with Sri Lanka.   Mrs\nBandaranaike took over Catholic Schools in spite of massive protests, Mr\nBandaranaike took over Port, Buses from local Mudalalis even without 2\/3\nmajority in parliament.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabaya\n\u2013 Mahinda Regime is in the box seat to stamp their authority to ensure the full\nownership of assets of Sri Lanka in the hands of Sri Lankans.<\/strong> \n                     \n                     <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE Sri Lanka has gone to the extreme of free market economy. As a result, there had been a net outflow of foreign exchange and rapid depreciation of Rupee.  Sri Lanka has continued Late President Jayawardene\u2019s  Open Economy and most recently former Prime Minister has transferred Hambanthota Port  to China as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111177","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=111177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}