Sri Lanka has no reason to be wary of increased investments from China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since the country has not allowed security issues to come in, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a recent forum. Participating at a panel discussion during the final session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2018 on Friday, Wickremesinghe said that the issue of security has been clearly conveyed to the Chinese government and assured that both the governments look at the investments as purely economic projects.“We got the Hambantota Harbour going as a Public Private Partnership with China Merchants and SLPA. Now we have to create the hinterland for the harbor. That’s basically going to be FDI and it is the same with Port City,” Wickremesinghe said noting that Sri Lanka requires Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to repay the massive debt incurred in building the infrastructure. Noting that the burden of repaying the international sovereign bonds was a ‘bigger issue’ than the debt incurred from the Exim Bank of China, the Premier outlined that Sri Lanka will also in future pursue investments from Japan and India.
“We are not stopping anyone else but it will only make Sri Lanka more attractive,” he said.