Friday, August 14, 2009

China funds more development in SL

The Exim Bank of China is to provide more than US$ 350 million for two major development projects in Sri Lanka.

The two projects are the Colombo – Katunayake Expressway and the Hambantota Bunkering facility.

The Hambantota Bunkering facility is a major component of the Hambantota Port Development Project, which is also largely being funded with Chinese assistance. Upon completion, the Colombo – Katunayake Expressway will establish a modern and efficient transport link between the Airport to the city of Colombo, reducing the traffic congestions and the travel time.

Agreements on assistance from the Exim Bank of China for these projects were signed, in China August 06, between the Vice President of the Exim Bank Mr. Zhu Xinqiang and Secretary to the Treasury Sumith Abeysinghe.

The signing of the two agreements will pave the way for much needed infrastructure requirements which will have an immense impact on the country’s future socio-economic development.

Congratulating Sri Lanka for the recent victory in defeating terrorism, the Vice President of the Exim Bank Mr.Zhu Xinqiang recalled the strong bilateral relations existing between the two countries and expressed that overall relations between the two countries have been further strengthened and consolidated with closer development co-operation. Recalling the improving trade & investment ties, he indicated that China would be pleased to assist Sri Lanka in her future development efforts.

The Secretary to the Treasury, Sumith Abeysinghe also made use of this visit to meet with the Senior Officials of the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Exim Bank and had extensive discussions on future development assistance.

The Chinese authorities while expressing satisfaction of Sri Lanka’s economic and political stability and placed confidence in the current economic development programme of the Government in alleviating poverty and raising the living standards of the people. They also expressed their keenness to help the Government efforts with an enhanced package of development assistance.
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