China’s debt trap? The true story of Hambantota port

[Godman]

Can you tell us about Hambantota's lease?

It was leased for 99 years (the same type of lease is also used in the port city and most major investments in SL are 99 year leases) to the HIPG which is 80% owned by CMPORTS and 20% by the Ports Authority of Sri Lanka.
http://www.hipg.lk

 

[武成王]

Our population is slightly higher than 21 Million actually. Slightly less than Taiwa or Australia

There are several issues affecting Hambantota currently but I expect them to be solved before 2030 (or before 2025 if optimistic).
First is transportation links. Hambantota lacks a railway connection or a expressway connection which obviously affect the port.

The railway line to Hambantota will start construction work in the near future.
The project has 3 phases and the first phase was completed and opened this year.
Matara to Beliatta – 27 Kms
Beliatta to Hambantota – 48 Kms
Hambantota to Kataragama – 39.5 Kms

The Southern Expressway extension to Hambantota is nearing completion and should be finished by early 2020

I guess I used wrong number of population. After completion of the southern railway, there's no transportation hurdle for Hambantota. Sitting on an unique location on Indian Ocean, I think Sri Lanka can learn a lot from Singapore to transform into a logistic and financial center of South Asia. No better place than Sri Lanka in India Ocean region!

 

[nahtanbob]

Its a self defeating article. The question is why China is investing in a "commercially unviable" project? Whose coffers did it fill to do this project? Hambantota is a fishing village. How could anyone develop a village with less population to suddenly grow into a city. Rajapakse had that fantasy and Chinese fueled that.

Chinese should have said NO to the project and asked for some other ones. But it did not.

they will blame sri lanka for accpeting the project

There're industrial parks in Gwadar and Hambantota. You have stated the logic behind the growth of a brand new city, industries create jobs and immigrants. Sri Lanka has a population of 40 millions enough to create a special economically emerging city, let alone Pakistan.

get your facts straight - sri lanka population is not 40 million

if chinese was interested in economic development of Pakistan and Sri Lanka they would be developing Karachi and Colombo

 

[sinait]

they will blame sri lanka for accpeting the project



get your facts straight - sri lanka population is not 40 million

if chinese was interested in economic development of Pakistan and Sri Lanka they would be developing Karachi and Colombo

You mean a sovereign nation Sri Lanka of 21 million cannot be trusted with making and be responsible for their own decisions.
Sri Lanka populated with dummies and should let India decide everything for them??
In that case Singapore with 3 million cannot be trusted as well and should let corrupt Malaysia run Singapore according to you.
.

 

[nahtanbob]

You mean a sovereign nation Sri Lanka of 21 million cannot be trusted with making and be responsible for their own decisions.
Sri Lanka populated with dummies and should let India decide everything for them??
In that case Singapore with 3 million cannot be trusted as well and should let corrupt Malaysia run Singapore according to you.
.

today you blame sri lanka. tomorrow you will blame pakistan
pretty soon no one will trust you. there is no difference between china and a money lender from the Middle Ages

 

[sinait]

today you blame sri lanka. tomorrow you will blame pakistan
pretty soon no one will trust you. there is no difference between china and a money lender from the Middle Ages

Who is blaming anybody.
Unless nations are run by children, they have to be responsible for the economic decisions they make.
Just like how Singapore was criticized incessantly for our bold decisions, we take responsibility for our decisions and our success or failure.
We took some drastic measures against those media maligning us with FAKE NEWS.
Funny nobody were criticizing us when Singapore built GHOST TOWNS.
They instead see the brilliance of it and praise how Singapore is well planned with whole new towns built away from each other and avoid congestion.

We don't CRY and WHINE when things go wrong as it did go wrong during the financial crisis in 1980s when we immediately look for remedies instead of WHINING and BLAMING.
Thankfully you are just a TROLL and not in a position to make decisions.
That explains why Indians need DECADES TO DECIDE, failure phobia(atychiphobia).
.

 

[TaiShang]

India as a country cannot invest in commercial projects. It can ask its companies to invest or even state owned ones. But they did an analysis and told an airport and an port in Hambantota is commercially unviable. Why will they even bother to invest and burn their money?

You mistake Indian inefficiency for rational choice.

 

[nahtanbob]

A flourishing Hambantota Port, together with the booming Port of Colombo, will be strong competitors to India’s maritime facilities. Despite investing in Sri Lanka, India needs more FDI and loans to develop its own infrastructure.
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How can a port in Sri Lanka be a serious threat to Indian ports ? Indian economy is 50 times larger than sri lankan economy. Any exports/imports to India have to be offloaded in Indian ports

Who is blaming anybody.
Unless nations are run by children, they have to be responsible for the economic decisions they make.
.

Even if bribes are paid to leaders

 

[sinait]

How can a port in Sri Lanka be a serious threat to Indian ports ? Indian economy is 50 times larger than sri lankan economy. Any exports/imports to India have to be offloaded in Indian ports

Even if bribes are paid to leaders

In that case Sri Lankans are responsible to deal with their corrupt leaders.
It is not China or any foreign powers business.
Quickly remedy their political system for coming up with inferior leaders.

Definitely not the business of a PDF Indian trolling here who whip out accusations of bribery from his arse.
.

 

[nahtanbob]

In that case Sri Lankans are responsible to deal with their corrupt leaders.
It is not China or any foreign powers business.
Quickly remedy their political system for coming up with inferior leaders.

Definitely not the business of a PDF Indian trolling here who whip out accusations of bribery from his arse.
.

I will remember your line of logic. Why blame Western powers when Chinese leaders were incompetent in 19th century ?

 

[sinait]

I will remember your line of logic. Why blame Western powers when Chinese leaders were incompetent in 19th century ?

My line of logic is GROW UP MAN.
Take responsibility for your decisions.
Sri Lanka waw the one asking for development, first from India but was rejected and only later the Chinese.
The Chinese did not form a coalition of bandits with other nations and bring cannons to force Sri Lanka consume poison like what the Europeans did to China.

The port will bring trade to Sri Lanka and give employment opportunities to the locals.
And what is so bad about giving a 99 year lease on the port to China in lieu of debt?
It is not much different from BOT(Build-Operate-Transfer) financing.
The port still belongs to Sri Lanka, and they are not moving the port to China.

Don't keep blaming China for all their woes and less than optimum decisions.
Don't WHINE WHINE WHINE all day, IT IS SICKENING.
.

 

[nahtanbob]

My line of logic is GROW UP MAN.
Take responsibility for your decisions.
Sri Lanka were the ones asking for development, first from India but was rejected and only later the Chinese.
And what is so bad about giving a 99 year lease on the port to China in lieu of debt?
It is not much different from BOT(Build-Operate-Transfer) financing.
The port still belongs to Sri Lanka, and they are not moving the port to China.

Don't keep blaming China for all your woes and less than optimum decisions.
Don't WHINE WHINE WHINE all day, IT IS SICKENING.
.

The basic theme on the infrastructure being built is what can China build and how can China make money

If the port was needed it is one thing. Sri Lanka has 25 million people with already functional port in Colombo. They do not have manufacturing base. Probably they never will. Tourism is their biggest industry

 

[sinait]

The basic theme on the infrastructure being built is what can China build and how can China make money

If the port was needed it is one thing. Sri Lanka has 25 million people with already functional port in Colombo. They do not have manufacturing base. Probably they never will. Tourism is their biggest industry

Sri Lanka should employ you the Genius Economist since you know better than the Sri Lankans what they need.
Why is such a GENIUS wasting time TROLLING HERE.
Maybe you don't know the difference between knowing what they need and having the knowledge to make it a success.
That is why the Port of Singapore are engaged worldwide to manage ports.
Ditto DP World.
Ditto the Chinese were able to turn Greek Piraeus port profitable after they took over.

Problem with Indians is they are always imposing their opinions onto others where none were requested.
That is why they are loathed by all their neighbors.

And YES, the Chinese don't operate a Charity, but a business where all participating parties benefit.
So called WIN WIN outcomes.
NOT WHINE WHINE WHINE like you.
.

 

[Realtalk108]

Why should China say no? Because Sri Lankans are stupid?

Umm....yeah. You don't invest in commercially unviable projects. I thought this was quite obvious.

Now if you want to burn money, be our guest. BTW the port hasn't seen any uptick in traffic even after China took over.