Rollno21
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Good ,still it's a regional power
Sri Lanka finalises $1.12 bn port deal with China
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supun1
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Isn't that what I've been saying? with the potential of being superpower in the next 25-30 years.
First it has to match US GDP, then continue its growth for another 10 years to put enough space between it and #2 to call itself a superpower.
That's why China is characterized as a potential superpower on the Wikipedia article on China.
Rollno21
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Nope,China will be regional power as long as it has enemies around it as neighbors,weather 25 years or 100 years dsnt matter
supun1
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That's a pipe dream.
When India defence expenditure is $150 Billion, China's will be close to $2 Trillion. Enemy or not, when your defence expenditure exceeds the rest of the world combined it will be a superpower.
Rollno21
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Yup ,it will be a pipe dream for China that too a big one at that .
Radio Mirchi
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So when these yellow men are taking over Gawadar?
Now you are talking like a Chinese. Soon you will be talking in mandarin. Best of Luck!
Han Patriot
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http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/07/29/indias-position-as-china-takes-hambantota-port/
A new twist to the Hambantota affair
A new twist to the Hambantota affair
Godman
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Lankaweb is a random blog , its better to quote directly from the source
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=169092
Han Patriot
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It seems Srisena is not an Indian puppet afterall. He is playing a very shrewd game here.
Godman
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Sirisena doesn't really pay much attention to economic things . It was the PM that went to China and negotiated the deal, Sirisena is from the SLFP while the PM is in the UNP. The MP that picked trouble with Chinese was Ravi Karunanayake who is also in the UNP so if he opposed this he will be opposing his leader.
The Rajapaksas on the other hand are clearly divided on these
Mahinda Rajapaksa opposes this and wants to overturn the deal when he gets the chance, His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa and his son Namal Rajapaksa also oppose this.
The deal was planned to be signed last year but was delayed due to their opposition
http://colombogazette.com/2017/02/16/china-delays-planned-1-1-billion-investment-in-hambantota-port/
His elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa on the other hand supports this. He initially had issues but is now working with the government.
The person in the middle is Chamal Rajapaksa, The person in a suit is Sagala Rathnayake who is the Southern Development minister and the other guy in white shirt is Sajith Premadasa discussing the Chinese investments in Hambanota port
Han Patriot
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Sorry bro, forgot Srisena is the President, who has more power in SL? PM right? So who is the Indian stooge here?Sirisena doesn't really pay much attention to economic things . It was the PM that went to China and negotiated the deal, Sirisena is from the SLFP while the PM is in the UNP. The MP that picked trouble with Chinese was Ravi Karunanayake who is also in the UNP so if he opposed this he will be opposing his leader.
The Rajapaksas on the other hand are clearly divided on these
Mahinda Rajapaksa opposes this and wants to overturn the deal when he gets the chance, His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa and his son Namal Rajapaksa also oppose this.
The deal was planned to be signed last year but was delayed due to their opposition
http://colombogazette.com/2017/02/16/china-delays-planned-1-1-billion-investment-in-hambantota-port/
His elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa on the other hand supports this. He initially had issues but is now working with the government.
The person in the middle is Chamal Rajapaksa, The person in a suit is Sagala Rathnayake who is the Southern Development minister and the other guy in white shirt is Sajith Premadasa discussing the Chinese investments in Hambanota port
Banglar Bir
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Sri Lanka joins China’s One Belt One Road project with port at Hambantota
P K Balachandran, July 30, 2017
Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Parakrama Dissanayake and Executive Vice President of CMport
With the signing of the amended agreement by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the China Merchant Port Holdings Company (CMPort) here on Saturday, Sri Lanka has well and truly joined China’s One Road One Belt (OBOR) multi-continental communications project.
With Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myamnar also signing up for OBOR, India appears to be isolated and out in the cold in its own backyard.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Executive Vice President of the China Merchant Group (CMG), to which CMPort belongs, Dr. Hu Jianhua said: “The agreement will make sure that Hambantota port will achieve its due status as a gateway to the expanding economies of South Asia and the African region where we have similar layouts. With these maritime infra-structure investments, and other diverse investments, such as the proposed international maritime centre, Sri Lanka will be well positioned to play a strategic role in the One–Belt-One-Road initiative of the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Hu noted that the Hambantota project is the largest maritime communication project in Sri Lanka, to date. The bold decision to build the port was taken in 2009 when the world was going through an economic crisis. When fully functional, the port will contribute significantly to the economic development of Sri Lanka, he added.
Hu further said that China would bring to the port its established expertise in running ports successfully, just as it did in the case of the Colombo Port’s International Container Terminals. Because of the Chinese built and run Container Terminals, the Colombo Port is one of the 20 top ports in the world, he pointed out.
In answer to the criticism that Chinese companies are only interested in their work and making money the world over, oblivious to the needs of locals, Hu said that as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, CMPort will have agricultural and health projects in the neighborhood of the port.
In his address, the Sri Lankan Minister of Ports, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said that the agreement on Hambantota will be the harbinger for more Chinese investments in Sri Lanka to enhance the island’s industrial potential. Sri Lanka, he said, is to set up several industrial zones which need Chinese investments.
Samarasinghe profusely thanked the Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Yi Xiliang, for working “tirelessly” to bring the agreement about in the face of opposition from Sri Lankan nationalists who decried an earlier agreement on the project (in December 2016) as a “sell out” and still continue to subject the government to barbs about ignoring the national interest.
Minister Samarasinghe took pains to explain the improvements made in the amended agreement in relation to the earlier agreements. The amended agreement secures for the Hambantota port, US$ 1.12 billion, in upfront payment from the Chinese partner CMPort, which will enable the SLPA and Sri Lanka to meet their debt repayment obligations.
It also gives the SLPA a 30% stake in the port, in contrast to 20% which was earmarked for it earlier under the December 2016 “Framework Agreement.” CMPort will now get 70% stake and not 80% as granted earlier.
Furthermore, the SLPA would get royalty and dividends. The security of the port would be entirely under the control of the SLPA. Warships could call at the port but only with the express permission of the SLPA and its security committee which will include the Defense Ministry and the Sri Lanka Navy.
Samarasinghe said that as per President Maithripala Sirisena’s suggestion, the amended agreement was placed on the table of parliament for discussion on Friday, but it could not be debated because of a ruckus created by the Opposition.
However, the agreement, as signed on Saturday would be presented to parliament again, because some might charge that it is different from the one presented on Friday, the Minister said.
He also pointed out that the agreement is not cast in stone for all time, and that it can be amended “at any time with the consent of both the parties.”
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that with the development of the Hambantota port, other districts of southern Sri Lanka will also grow and that economic growth will not be restricted to Colombo district, as has been the case so far.
Opposition
However, a discordant note was struck by the Marxist/ultra nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), whose leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said that the JVP will ask workers in the SLPA to reject the agreement. He said that bunkering should have been kept exclusively with the SLPA as it is a money spinner.
Significantly former Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga who has been opposed to the deal, wanting a 60% stake for the SLPA and not 70%, did not attend the signing ceremony.
Controversy
Located near the main shipping route between Asia and Europe, the Hambantota port has been mired in controversy since CMPort built it for US$1.4 billion. The port did not get custom and was running up a huge loss. Other than car carriers which were forced to call at Hambantota, only 19 ships called in 2015; 14 in 2016 and 10 so far in 2017.
According to SLPA Chairman, Parakrama Dissanayake, the port had run up a humongous cumulative loss of LKR 46,711 million and the annual loan repayment was a hefty LKR 9100 million.
A further investment of US$ 600 million was needed to make the port truly operational and able to receive large ships. But Sri Lanka had no money. This need and the inability to pay off the loan made the government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to request China to convert the debt into equity.
But there was opposition to this “debt-equity” swap idea both in Sri Lanka and in China. In Sri Lanka it meant majority ownership of a great and sensitive national asset by a foreign state owned company. And in China, it was against the law to convert debt into equity.
However, repeated pleading by Sri Lankan leaders made their Chinese counterparts relent. By 2016 end, China had agreed to take 80% stake and pay US$ 1 billion for it. But they also wanted and got the port on a lease for 99 years and 15,000 acres of land to develop the hinterland.
But when this “Framework Agreement” was made public, there was a hue and cry from the opposition and the media. Farmers, port employees, politically inspired thugs and even Buddhist monks, rioted in Hambantota. Port workers held up a Japanese vessel for days. The then Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga demanded full control over the port and said that the Chinese company should not be given more than 60% of the shares.
Anti-China and security conscious India also put in its two penny bit, and demanded that port security be entirely in the hands of the Sri Lanka navy/SLPA and the Chinese should not be allowed to use the port for military purposes except with Sri Lanka’s permission.
These factors forced the government to approach the Chinese for an amendment. After hard and long negotiations, as Dr. Hu put it, the two parties finally agreed to a 70-30 share division. China also assured that the port would not be used for military purposes.
The revised deal provides for the formation of two companies to split the operations of the port. Sri Lanka will have a majority stake (50.7%) in the Hambantota International Port Services Company (HIPS), which will be in charge of security. And China will run the other company, the Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG), which will be in charge of business. In the latter company CMPort will have 85% stake.
The lease of the port will continue to be for 99 years, but Sri Lanka will have options to buy back shares at predetermined times. One of the options is that the SLPA can purchase all shares at the end of 70 years. All transactions in the port are to take place as per Sri Lankan laws.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...as-one-belt-one-road-project-port-hambantota/
P K Balachandran, July 30, 2017
Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Parakrama Dissanayake and Executive Vice President of CMport
With the signing of the amended agreement by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the China Merchant Port Holdings Company (CMPort) here on Saturday, Sri Lanka has well and truly joined China’s One Road One Belt (OBOR) multi-continental communications project.
With Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myamnar also signing up for OBOR, India appears to be isolated and out in the cold in its own backyard.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Executive Vice President of the China Merchant Group (CMG), to which CMPort belongs, Dr. Hu Jianhua said: “The agreement will make sure that Hambantota port will achieve its due status as a gateway to the expanding economies of South Asia and the African region where we have similar layouts. With these maritime infra-structure investments, and other diverse investments, such as the proposed international maritime centre, Sri Lanka will be well positioned to play a strategic role in the One–Belt-One-Road initiative of the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Hu noted that the Hambantota project is the largest maritime communication project in Sri Lanka, to date. The bold decision to build the port was taken in 2009 when the world was going through an economic crisis. When fully functional, the port will contribute significantly to the economic development of Sri Lanka, he added.
Hu further said that China would bring to the port its established expertise in running ports successfully, just as it did in the case of the Colombo Port’s International Container Terminals. Because of the Chinese built and run Container Terminals, the Colombo Port is one of the 20 top ports in the world, he pointed out.
In answer to the criticism that Chinese companies are only interested in their work and making money the world over, oblivious to the needs of locals, Hu said that as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, CMPort will have agricultural and health projects in the neighborhood of the port.
In his address, the Sri Lankan Minister of Ports, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said that the agreement on Hambantota will be the harbinger for more Chinese investments in Sri Lanka to enhance the island’s industrial potential. Sri Lanka, he said, is to set up several industrial zones which need Chinese investments.
Samarasinghe profusely thanked the Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Yi Xiliang, for working “tirelessly” to bring the agreement about in the face of opposition from Sri Lankan nationalists who decried an earlier agreement on the project (in December 2016) as a “sell out” and still continue to subject the government to barbs about ignoring the national interest.
Minister Samarasinghe took pains to explain the improvements made in the amended agreement in relation to the earlier agreements. The amended agreement secures for the Hambantota port, US$ 1.12 billion, in upfront payment from the Chinese partner CMPort, which will enable the SLPA and Sri Lanka to meet their debt repayment obligations.
It also gives the SLPA a 30% stake in the port, in contrast to 20% which was earmarked for it earlier under the December 2016 “Framework Agreement.” CMPort will now get 70% stake and not 80% as granted earlier.
Furthermore, the SLPA would get royalty and dividends. The security of the port would be entirely under the control of the SLPA. Warships could call at the port but only with the express permission of the SLPA and its security committee which will include the Defense Ministry and the Sri Lanka Navy.
Samarasinghe said that as per President Maithripala Sirisena’s suggestion, the amended agreement was placed on the table of parliament for discussion on Friday, but it could not be debated because of a ruckus created by the Opposition.
However, the agreement, as signed on Saturday would be presented to parliament again, because some might charge that it is different from the one presented on Friday, the Minister said.
He also pointed out that the agreement is not cast in stone for all time, and that it can be amended “at any time with the consent of both the parties.”
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that with the development of the Hambantota port, other districts of southern Sri Lanka will also grow and that economic growth will not be restricted to Colombo district, as has been the case so far.
Opposition
However, a discordant note was struck by the Marxist/ultra nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), whose leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said that the JVP will ask workers in the SLPA to reject the agreement. He said that bunkering should have been kept exclusively with the SLPA as it is a money spinner.
Significantly former Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga who has been opposed to the deal, wanting a 60% stake for the SLPA and not 70%, did not attend the signing ceremony.
Controversy
Located near the main shipping route between Asia and Europe, the Hambantota port has been mired in controversy since CMPort built it for US$1.4 billion. The port did not get custom and was running up a huge loss. Other than car carriers which were forced to call at Hambantota, only 19 ships called in 2015; 14 in 2016 and 10 so far in 2017.
According to SLPA Chairman, Parakrama Dissanayake, the port had run up a humongous cumulative loss of LKR 46,711 million and the annual loan repayment was a hefty LKR 9100 million.
A further investment of US$ 600 million was needed to make the port truly operational and able to receive large ships. But Sri Lanka had no money. This need and the inability to pay off the loan made the government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to request China to convert the debt into equity.
But there was opposition to this “debt-equity” swap idea both in Sri Lanka and in China. In Sri Lanka it meant majority ownership of a great and sensitive national asset by a foreign state owned company. And in China, it was against the law to convert debt into equity.
However, repeated pleading by Sri Lankan leaders made their Chinese counterparts relent. By 2016 end, China had agreed to take 80% stake and pay US$ 1 billion for it. But they also wanted and got the port on a lease for 99 years and 15,000 acres of land to develop the hinterland.
But when this “Framework Agreement” was made public, there was a hue and cry from the opposition and the media. Farmers, port employees, politically inspired thugs and even Buddhist monks, rioted in Hambantota. Port workers held up a Japanese vessel for days. The then Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga demanded full control over the port and said that the Chinese company should not be given more than 60% of the shares.
Anti-China and security conscious India also put in its two penny bit, and demanded that port security be entirely in the hands of the Sri Lanka navy/SLPA and the Chinese should not be allowed to use the port for military purposes except with Sri Lanka’s permission.
These factors forced the government to approach the Chinese for an amendment. After hard and long negotiations, as Dr. Hu put it, the two parties finally agreed to a 70-30 share division. China also assured that the port would not be used for military purposes.
The revised deal provides for the formation of two companies to split the operations of the port. Sri Lanka will have a majority stake (50.7%) in the Hambantota International Port Services Company (HIPS), which will be in charge of security. And China will run the other company, the Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG), which will be in charge of business. In the latter company CMPort will have 85% stake.
The lease of the port will continue to be for 99 years, but Sri Lanka will have options to buy back shares at predetermined times. One of the options is that the SLPA can purchase all shares at the end of 70 years. All transactions in the port are to take place as per Sri Lankan laws.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...as-one-belt-one-road-project-port-hambantota/
Godman
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Sirisena is the head of state as he is the president, his party is the SLFP. The entire Rajapaksa family is also members of the SLFP but is another group called the Joint Opposition
Ranil Wickremesinghe is the Prime Minister and his party is the UNP
The government is a unity between Pro-Sirisena SLFP and the UNP however it is often called a UNP government as the UNP has most of the seats in the Parliament.
In Sri Lanka one party can form a government even when the President is from the opposing party and it has happened before in SL but they tend to be disastrous and extremely unstable as the President is in conflict with the PM and majority of the parliament. Also President has complete control of armed forces and some other things always so these usually end up like a body where one half goes against the other
However as the UNP is allied with Sirisena's SLFP this is averted and instead they discussed and divided the work.
Defence related issues will be under president while Economic issues are under the PM. Roadways , Foreign Policy ,Internation trade ,ethnic affairs ,religious affairs, Telecommuncations ,Education ,Justice etc are under the UNP.
SLFP has Agriculture ,Irrigation ,Air transport ,Energy ,Labour ,Disaster management.
SLFP also has Ports and Shipping however the lease of the port was negotiated by the PM.
President also intervenes when the PM and UNP mess up, he also changes Ministries when the ministers become unpopular
In the government Ministers Ravi Karunanayake and Mangala Samaraweera had issues with China but the PM and President seems to warned them.
Han Patriot
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OK, it seems the PM and President are quite independent of India in this sense, that's why they are playing this game shrewdly, as long as China takes care of SL national interest, we can actually have strategic favors in return to balance out India. Btw, we just need a port, it is under SL sovereignty, but we need listening stations and replenishment, can be under joint control, lease whatever. We have no interest in invading SL, India is the one having those thoughts.
Godman
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The funny thing is the agreement was signed in the 29th of July. The same day the Indo-Lanka accord was signed, SL was forced to sign it after India intervened in the first war against LTTE saving the LTTE leadership after they were cornered by the militray
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Poomalai
Officially the agreement is about rights of Tamil and allowing Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka(Who then masscered Tamils in several towns and Jaffna's Biggest hospital)
However the agreement was a show of force and the real reason was to force SL to not allow Lankan ports to be used against India as shown in the letters sent by Indian PM to SL President on the same day,
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/document/papers/indo_srilanks_agreement.htm
Now China is running a port in SL and building the OBOR on the same day that India made SL promise that it will not allow SL ports be used against India
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