Addressing the panel discussion at the closing session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit last week, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had pointed out that “China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will be a massive economic opportunity for Sri Lanka”, further assuring the sovereign interest of Sri Lanka.

He further highlighted that the Government is keen on pursuing Japanese and Indian investments in the key major projects undertaken with Chinese aid and investments.

“As long as we do not allow security issues to come in, there should not be a problem with BRI. We have told this to the Chinese Government and they appreciate it. Both countries are looking at BRI as an economic project,” the Premier Wickremesinghe told the audience adding that for many countries the BRI has mainly been a project to fund infrastructure, and that Sri Lanka had moved beyond that and reached the next stage - that of reaping economic benefits.

“We have done the infrastructure, we have gotten the Hambantota Port going as a public private partnership (PPP) with China Merchants and Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). Now we have got to focus on attracting foreign direct investments (FDIs) similar to Colombo Port City,” Premier Wickremesinghe told the audience. He noted that it is important to focus on these two projects, which is the next stage of bringing in FDIs to the country.

- Reporting by Devendra Francis