The Government has been accused of lack of transparency in its deals with China.<\/p>\n
Harin Fernando, a Minister in the previous Government led by Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused the current administration of turning Sri Lanka into a \u201cbanana republic\u201d under Chinese rule, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2014, before we toppled the government, this is what we highlighted. But now we see [the Chinese] doing this much more strategically,\u201d he told Nikkei.<\/p>\n
Fernando said China now has a complete monopoly on Sri Lanka\u2019s development projects and that Sri Lanka is \u201cunder debt\u201d to China.<\/p>\n
He added that many dealings with China in the past lacked transparency and failed to follow due tender procedure, while the public was often kept in the dark.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Sri Lanka\u2019s strong ties with neighboring India are being tested after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that his Government is reviewing a port deal worth millions of dollars that was signed between the previous Sirisena Government and New Delhi.<\/p>\n
Political observers say the move is the latest effort by Rajapaksa to distance himself from grants and other funding offered by the \u201cQuad\u201d nations \u2014 the U.S., India, Japan and Australia \u2014 which are trying to counter China\u2019s growing geopolitical influence. Sri Lanka\u2019s government recently shelved the Japan-funded Colombo Light Railway project and a $480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation grant from the U.S.<\/p>\n
Workers at Colombo Port, which handles more than 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo annually, are demanding that the government scrap the agreement, which authorizes India and Japan to develop the new East Container Terminal. The port workers want guarantees that the project will be fully owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, a government entity.<\/p>\n
Trade unions say the project threatens to cede ownership of the ECT to India. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and elder brother of the incumbent, said there is \u201cno final agreement\u201d with regard to the project, although the previous government signed a memorandum of cooperation with India and Japan May 2019 to develop the ECT. The terms of the deal gave Sri Lanka a 51% stake, with India and Japan holding the rest. The project was estimated to cost between $500 million and $700 million.<\/p>\n
A representative of the Indian High Commission in Colombo said that about two-thirds of Sri Lanka\u2019s international cargo traffic is with India. \u201cThere are opportunities for win-win cooperation among India, Sri Lanka and Japan in developing the ECT to promote prosperity in our maritime region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Colombo Gazette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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