{"id":41310,"date":"2015-02-07T22:33:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T04:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41310"},"modified":"2015-02-07T14:07:34","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T21:07:34","slug":"split-appears-as-governments-u-turn-on-chinas-1-4-billion-port-project-while-ranil-still-insists-on-no-nod-yet-to-china-funded-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/07\/split-appears-as-governments-u-turn-on-chinas-1-4-billion-port-project-while-ranil-still-insists-on-no-nod-yet-to-china-funded-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Crack appears as Government\u2019s U-turn on China\u2019s $1.4 billion port project while Ranil still insists on No Nod Yet to China-funded Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yahapalanaya News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

President invites China to invest more in Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

An Apparent policy conflict has appeared yesterday between Priminister Ranil Wickremasinghe\u2019s\u00a0 UNP fraction of the government and President Sirisena\u2019s faction when the cabinet backed China\u2019s $1.4 billion proposal after favourable environmental report<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s new government has approved China\u2019s $1.4 billion port project in the island nation\u2019s capital, marking a swift U-turn following warnings it might scrap the venture.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Thursday the Cabinet approved the Colombo Port City project following a favorable environmental impact assessment.<\/p>\n

Contradicting cabinet spokesman Dr Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament here on Friday, that the controversial US$ 1.4 billion Chinese-funded Colombo Port City project had not been cleared, and that it is being reviewed and No Nod Yet given to China-funded Project.<\/p>\n

There are many issues regarding the port city project. Therefore when this government came to power, I got down all the files relating to this project. When I inspected them, I found that all the required reports are not there. There is a deficiency in the EIA. Therefore, to inquire into this, we have appointed a separate committee. In addition to that, under my chairmanship we have appointed a cabinet subcommittee. After getting reports, we will take a decision. We will inquire and then take that committee\u2019s report into consideration and take a decision. And at that stage we will inform this House,\u201d Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

Wickremasinghe\u2019s position is in support of Sri Lanka\u2019s neighbour India who has raised concern about security threats posed by Chinese ownership of the freehold of 20 hectares of land next to the main commercial port in Colombo. India uses Colombo as a transshipment port.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said before last month\u2019s presidential vote he would cancel the deal if his party came to power because no environmental impact assessment or feasibility study had been presented to parliament.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Special Envoy and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Liu Jianchao, told the Lankan media here on Friday, that China is ready to submit all its projects for review, and that these projects will proceed further only upon getting clearance.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile President Maithripala Sirisena while expressing hope that China would assist Sri Lanka in its development endeavors in the future too, invited Chinese government as well as private companies to increase investment in Sri Lanka, when the Chinese President’s Special Envoy and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Liu Jianchao called on the President yesterday (06).<\/p>\n

Minister Jianchao who is currently on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka said China expected to further enhance the long \u2013standing bilateral relations between the two countries and pledged his country’s continued assistance to Sri Lanka’s development.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Minister extended China’s congratulations to President Sirisena on his election victory and said two main Chinese magazines have reported very positively about President Sirisena’s assumption of high office.<\/p>\n

President Sirisena recalled with gratitude the assistance by China to Sri Lanka in the past especially commended the support given to Sri Lanka to eradicate terrorism from its soil.<\/p>\n

During the discussion it was revealed that President Sirisena is scheduled to undertake a state visit to China in late March and during that visit many discussions will be held to further cement existing bilateral relations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka Mr. Wu Jianghao and several other high level officials accompanied Minister Jianchao during the discussion.<\/p>\n

Senior Advisor on Foreign Relations to President Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala and Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ms. Chithrangani Wagiswara were also present.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in Colombo, China\u2019s assistant foreign minister, Liu Jianchao, said the plan, and another port project in the south, were good for Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

(We) believe that the new Sri Lankan government will act upon the basic interests of Sino-Sri Lanka friendship and national development to ensure important cooperation projects do not experience ups and downs because of changes in the political situation,\u201d China\u2019s foreign ministry cited Liu as saying.<\/p>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the project when he visited last year.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed deal, 108 hectares of the site on reclaimed land would be taken over by China Communications Construction Co Ltd, including 20 hectares on an outright basis and the rest on a 99-year lease.<\/p>\n

In a newspaper advertisement yesterday, Jiang Houliang, head of CHEC Colombo Port City (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of the state-owned Chinese investor, said his firm estimated 83,000 jobs and $13 billion of foreign direct investment would come from the project over 10 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yahapalanaya News President invites China to invest more in Sri Lanka An Apparent policy conflict has appeared yesterday between Priminister Ranil Wickremasinghe\u2019s\u00a0 UNP fraction of the government and President Sirisena\u2019s faction when the cabinet backed China\u2019s $1.4 billion proposal after favourable environmental report Sri Lanka\u2019s new government has approved China\u2019s $1.4 billion port project in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41310","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=41310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}