The FTA was expected to be finalised when Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe visits Beijing to take part in the Silk Road summit being held by China in May this year.
tripled and external debt doubled, as the country engaged in a number of costly undertakings," it said.
Significantly the article in the daily said investments will play an important part in the Free Trade Agreement(FTA) being worked out between China and Sri Lanka as Chinese manufacturers plans to sell goods made in Sri Lanka in India.
The FTA was expected to be finalised when Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe visits Beijing to take part in the Silk Road summit being held by China in May this year.
A "tripartite arrangement on trade and investment is likely to be discussed among India, Sri Lanka and Singapore," the article said.
"Sri Lanka may even be able to serve as a gateway to help Chinese investors explore the Indian market as the island nation is keen to make itself an offshore centre for South Asia," it said.
Indian officials say this meant that China wants to set up manufacturing in Sri Lanka to sell the goods in India, which New Delhi is unlikely to encourage. While India may be open for goods made in Sri Lanka with local and Indian investments, goods made with third country investments may come under different category, they said. Besides giving 80 percent stakes to a state run Chinese firm in Hambantota port for 99 years, debt ridden Sri Lankan government also plans to hand over 15,000 acres to a Chinese industrial park for manufacturing.
Both moves spared violent public protests in Hambantota with locals refusing to part with their lands. While the Chinese media highlights its growing investments in Sri Lanka which totalled to over USD eight billion in the last few years, Colombo says the some of the projects are not unviable.
In his interaction with media here Feb 4, Kodituwakku said that the Hambantota port hasn t been a viable project so far.
"Very small numbers (of ships). Even the incoming they have received is not even enough to maintain the port maintenance, forget the salaries about the people who are working," he said.
The Hambantota airport which was built with millions of dollars Chinese investments during the previous pro-China President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been converted into warehouse as it has no demand.
The article in Global Times said despite China's assurances that its investments in Sri Lanka are commercial, "India may still worry about the tentacles China stretches into the Indian Ocean".
"Despite a repeated pledge that Chinese investment in the Sri Lankan Hambantota port is normal business, India has remained alert. Further, Sri Lanka offered reassurances over the weekend that Chinese military activity would not be allowed at the port. Such words can be seen as diplomatic rhetoric to comfort India as Beijing and Colombo already have an understanding that the project is purely commercial," it said.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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