{"id":93732,"date":"2019-10-10T12:58:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T19:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93732"},"modified":"2019-10-10T12:58:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T19:58:03","slug":"free-and-open-indo-pacific-vision-and-belt-and-road-initiative-can-they-coexist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/10\/free-and-open-indo-pacific-vision-and-belt-and-road-initiative-can-they-coexist\/","title":{"rendered":"Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision and Belt and Road Initiative: Can they coexist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panel Discussion consisting of Pathfinder Foundation, University of Colombo and the Japanese Embassy <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Internationally\nrenowned Japanese Professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate School\nfor Law and Politics and Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the\nUniversity of Tokyo, Akio Takahara, delivered a thought-provoking lecture on\n\u2018Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision and Belt and Road Initiative\u2019 at the\nDepartment of Economics of the University of Colombo recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPathfinder Foundation is planning to hold a series of similar events in\ncooperation with Department of Economics, University of Colombo and Free and\nOpen Indo-Pacific Vision and Belt and Road Initiative\u2019 is the first of the\nseries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nProf. Takahara during his lecture elaborated how Japanese perception of Chinese\nhas been formed by territorial and maritime issues. He mentioned that Chinese\nperception on Japan has been changing over the years, and many Chinese hold Japanese\nin high regard because of the country\u2019s adherence to international law. Prof.\nTakahara also applauded the Japanese government\u2019s continued conditional support\nto the BRI based on openness, transparency, fairness, fiscal soundness and\neconomic viability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncenter point of discussion during the lecture was for Sri Lanka to look for\nmultilateral foreign investments and not only adhere to investments flowing\nfrom a single a country. The Senior Professor in Economics, Sirimal Abeyratne\npointed out that EU, USA and Japan had the opportunity to invest in Sri Lanka\nduring 2015-2017 but they were not realized. Then Sri Lanka was given an\nopportunity to have China as one of Sri Lanka\u2019s major partners again. He also\nexplained that BRI is a choice that the country could seize in order to achieve\nthe process of globalization and if forgone, the economy would stagnate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof.\nAdmiral Colombage spoke on the significance of the Indian Ocean to global\ntrade, and that BRI is seen as a solution for\ninfrastructure requirements in the Asian region, which requires 460 bn\nUSD\/year. Sri Lanka had only received 1.2% of its GDP as foreign investments in\n2018, which has left the country yearning for more foreign direct investments.\nHe explained that investment projects should take into account the\nenvironmental impacts, in addition to the conditions the Japanese government\nhad outlined in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Maneesha S. Wanasinghe Pasqual, held the\nview that BRI can be win-win or a win-lose scenario. The debt crisis,\ncorruption, viability concerns and the sustainability of projects are some of\nthe reasons why some Sri Lankan quarters are critical of the BRI. However, she\nalso noted the need for the involvement of other parties in order to make BRI a\nwin-win for smaller countries, through <\/strong>the\nexpansion of free and open economy while countering threats and making greater\nchoice available for smaller nations such as Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. W. Wimalaratana said that promoting competition is good in\nthe region since it enables development, citing the examples of Korea and\nJapan, Iran and Saudi and the development of European countries in 15th<\/sup>\nCentury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Takahara ended his discussion with the expert panelists\nposing two significant questions in relation to the BRI and foreign investments\nin Sri Lanka. While, he acknowledged the demand for infrastructure projects is\nalways greater than the supply, he highlighted the need to answer the question\nwho pays for such projects. The second question that Sri Lanka should seek to\nanswer in his view is, why are the Chinese interested in investing in Sri Lanka\nwhile other investors are keeping away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas also noted by the participants that speakers focused more on China and the\nBRI initiates but Indo Pacific Vision was not given sufficient coverage. Mr.\nLuxman Siriwardena from the Pathfinder Foundation gave his concluding remarks\nexpressing the great opportunities and challenges faced by Sri Lanka as an\nisland that is strategically located within the Indian Ocean. He emphasized\nthat Sri Lanka\u2019s strategic location in the Indian Ocean is a blessing with\npotential to turn into a curse unless or otherwise, the country is managed\nprudently and diplomatically by its leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panel Discussion consisting of Pathfinder Foundation, University of Colombo and the Japanese Embassy Internationally renowned Japanese Professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate School for Law and Politics and Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Akio Takahara, delivered a thought-provoking lecture on \u2018Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93732","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=93732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}