Colombo,
\nSri Lanka today formally handed over the strategic southern port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease, in a deal dubbed by the opposition as a sell-out.<\/p>\n
Two Chinese firms Hambantota International Port Group and Hambantota International Port Services managed by the China Merchants Port Holdings Company and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority will own the port and the investment zone around it, officials said.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during a visit to China in April had agreed to swap equity in Chinese infrastructure projects launched by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his home district. Sri Lanka owed China $8 billion, then finance minister Ravi Karunanayake had said last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this agreement we have started to pay back the loans. Hambantota will be converted to a major port in the Indian Ocean,\u201d Wickremesinghe said while addressing the handing over ceremony held in parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be an economic zone and industrialisation in the area which will lead to economic development and promote tourism,\u201d the prime minister said. The government\u2019s grant of large tax concessions to Chinese firms have also been questioned by the opposition.<\/p>\n
The opposition and trade unions have dubbed the deal as a sell out of the country\u2019s national assets to China.<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan government had signed a $1.1 billion deal in July to sell a 70 per cent stake in the Hambantota port to China.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka received $300 million as the initial payment under the 99-year lease agreement which the opposition had described as a sell out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombo, Sri Lanka today formally handed over the strategic southern port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease, in a deal dubbed by the opposition as a sell-out. Two Chinese firms Hambantota International Port Group and Hambantota International Port Services managed by the China Merchants Port Holdings Company and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12592,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12590\/revisions\/12592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}