Sri Lanka launches new port built with Chinese loan
By Shihar Aneez
HAMBANTOTA Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lanka flooded a new port on Sunday, built with Chinese assistance as part of a $6 billion drive to rebuild the island nation's infrastructure after a quarter century of war.
~ click on pic for larger image ~ Sri Lankan dancers perform at the site of A new port under construction at the southern town of Hambantota on August 15, 2010, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse presided over a ceremony marking the commencement of the building of sea walls of the 1.5 billion dollar Chinese-founded construction~pic:Getty images~Daylife
The Hambantota port, built at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion on the southern coast, will begin handling ships from November, officials said.
"This is part of making this country an emerging wonder of Asia," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said after launching the port.
Hambantota is one of four ports being built or upgraded under Rajapaksa's plan to renew the country's $42 billion economy by returning it to its old and lucrative role as a trading hub.
Built to handle 2,500 ships annually in the first stage, the new port is located along the East-West shipping lane and is ultimately meant to challenge Singapore's status as a regional shipping hub.
Sri Lanka now handles around 6,000 ships annually in its only port in Colombo on the western coast, which requires ships plying the East-West shipping lane to divert course.
Rajapaksa vowed to transform the island's economy with a series of infrastructure projects, soon after crushing a 25-year insurgency by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last year.
"It is not sea water that will fill this port but the future prosperity of our nation. From this port will emerge our true economic independence, " he said in a speech.
China's involvement in the building of the port had raised concerns in India, but analysts said Rajapaksa had successfully handled Indian pressure. Security analysts in India worry that the port was part of Beijing's String of Pearls strategy to build a network of ports across the Indian Ocean.
Beijing has loaned over $425 million for the first phase of Hambantota project including the bunkering facility. Colombo is negotiating for a further $800 million loan for the second phase.
In addition to cargo handling, Hambantota will have a fully fledged bunkering facility and a tank farm project.
The port will operate 14 tanks with a total capacity of 80,000 MT. Eight tanks will be utilised for bunkering while six will be used for aviation fuel and LPG.
Except bunkering, all other activities including bulk cargo handling, storage facility, warehouses, transshipment have been opened for offshore investors.
(Editing by Ranga Sirilal and Sanjeev Miglani) ~ courtesy: Reuters ~
More Pictures on Daylife: Hambantota, Sri Lanka
12 Comments
Title - Sri Lanka launches new port built with "Chinese" loan
Nice try to emphasize the lender to make Indians nervous; these fear mongering tactics failed long ago. Sri Lanka is on the way towards prosperity.........
The project is a commendable step forward to become the shipping hub in the region, providing employment and improving living standards of the people. The proposed airport will also enhance Hambantota as the centre for tourism in the east inviting youthful tourists to the area. Considering its strategic location, it may even take over from Singapore as the major airport in the area. Well done Sri Lanka.
Better a CHINESE LOAN than under WESTERN COLONIAL RULE.
And now Singapore's AUTHORITARIAN STATE CREATOR Lee Kwan Yew has started crying about Mahinda - how funny is that? I guess Singapore should not be afraid of Free Market competition... right?
LOL!
Some very funny thinking ppl. here. By building a port with borrowed money, they think SL can become Singapore overnight...
what a nonsense..
I hope Lanka is on a new path but an OLD hitorical truth became a reality. I hope many ships from India will come to the new port.South India and Sri Lanka had many businesses through the shipping lanes in the ancient times.
KKS harbour project was destroyed by our Tamil Champions. If that project get completed, North too will get more employment ops!
In country where unemployment is so high, the Govt has borrowed money from China which has to be repaid and in addition the Govt of Sri Lanka has allowed Chinese workers who are said to be prisoners in China to work on the project. This is only a loan which has to be repaid, until the loan is repaid there are strings attached! We have been loosers twice over.. as we have to dance according to the strings pulled by the Chinese and in addition Sri Lankans have lost employment.
Yes we need more Thamashas like this in the future.
Hope the GOSL will consider handing over the management of the Port to Hutchinson Group of Hong Kong. they are the experts in this field.
They know to generate business thereby SL will be able to repay this loan as well as many others.
We are the only people in the world to voluntarily surrender 2000 Hectares of habitable land to the sea. Given that there was the option of developing Galle port which is in close proximity our egocentric MahaRajaneni has to build all this at his doorstep.
*** This is only a loan which has to be repaid, until the loan is repaid there are strings attached! ***
ALL Loans have to be Repaid.... that is the very definition of a "Loan". At least the CHINESE are not telling us how to run our Government and Security. And its not like we borrowed the money to spend in a Casino... we're building a Major South Asian Port... one which will generate a Hundredfold its borrowed value in foreign Exchange for our people. The very fact that LEE KWAN YEW is crying like a sissy is proof positive that Singapore already feels threatened by the Competition.
This port is Job Creation, this Port is Development, this port is everything the WHINEY TAMIL NATIONALISTS hate about our country. Along with the Sour Grapes UNPers they only look to criticize and chastise... What BAFOONS they are.
Lankan:
Are you telling IMF loans given without any "strings" attached? Chinese do not ask Sri Lanka to dance to its tunes but IMF has history of imposing their wills on loans.
"It matters little if the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice"
- Deng Zhio Peng -
Whether Chinese, Indian or US funds if the country is developed that is all that matters. If the Port is a financial success, provides employment for thousands of our unemployed and generates daily business to drive up the economy that is the issue. We are assuming there is no subtle effort to push us into a trap of a future inter-play of global powers, which is something, I am sure, the experts within the administration would have looked into carefully while examining the wider proposal in the beginning. The Rajapakses need to be congratulated here because the Indians, for their own parochial economic reasons, may not have shown much enthusiasm to finance the development of a competitive sea Port and accompanying facilities.
ISS
This investment is one of the most significant in the post colonial era in Sri Lanka. It will hopefully allow Sri Lanka to re-discover it's pivotal role as a crucial hub in the East West trade that it played through out history.