(UTV|COLOMBO) – A Chinese firm on Wednesday paid the final tranche as part of its first investment for the Sri Lankan port in the south of the country.
The final tranche of the investment value for the Hambantota Port was released by China Merchant Port Holdings Limited (CM Port), the Sri Lankan Ports Authority said.
The cheque to the effect was handed over to the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake by the Chief Representative of China Merchant Group in Sri Lanka Ray Ren in the presence of senior port officials and representatives of CM Port.
It’s the single highest ever Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received by Sri Lanka to date.
This third final tranche totalling 584,194,800 dollars followed the first two tranches released in last December and January 2018 with amounts of 292 million dollars and 97 million dollars respectively.
With this payment CM Port has fulfilled the investment of 976 million dollars for the port concession. According to the Concession Agreement, CM Port has agreed to further deposit a sum of 146 million dollars which will be utilized for port and marine related activities.
In view of the urgent need for viable and efficient operation of the Port of Hambantota, with the leadership of Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe and under the guidance of the President and Prime Minister, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority(SLPA) and the government of Sri Lanka entered into the Concession Agreement with China Merchant Port Holdings Limited of Hong Kong in July last year for management, operation and development of the Hambantota Port in a Public Private Partnership model.
On December 9th last year, two Sri Lankan companies were established under the concession agreement, namely, Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) and Hambantota International Port Services Co. (Pvt) Ltd. (HIPS) officially took over the Hambantota Port, making the concluded concession agreement effective.
“CM Port is one of the most successful global companies in the ports sector, and their investment in the Port of Hambantota can be described as a credible vote of confidence in its potential as well as in the economy of Sri Lanka,” said Parakrama Dissanayake, the Chairman of the SLPA.
The two companies established in Hambantota plan to further invest an additional 400 million dollars to 600 million dollars on phase I and II of the Hambantota Port. These investments will attract many other foreign investors to the country, making Sri Lanka a pivotal maritime and logistics centre.
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