Sri Lanka on Saturday sealed a billion-dollar deal to let a Chinese state firm take over a loss-making port in a move that has been opposed by unions and worries the island’s neighbours. The long-delayed sale $1.1 billion sale of a 70 percent stake in Hambantota port, which straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route, … Read more
Sri Lanka will proceed with the billion-dollar sale of a deep sea port to China despite protests in an effort to slash its foreign debt, the prime minister said Friday. Hambantota port straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route and several countries, including neighbouring India, had raised concerns China could use it for its own … Read more
Sri Lanka deployed troops and police to distribute fuel Wednesday as striking petroleum workers protested over plans to sell off stakes in state-owned oil depots to India and China. The indefinite walkout by workers of the national oil company, backed by Sri Lanka’s main leftist opposition party, is in response to the sale of state … Read more
Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday approved the sale to China of a majority stake in a loss-making but strategically-sited deep sea port for more than a billion dollars, the ports minister said. The cabinet gave final approval to sell a 70 percent stake in Hambantota port for $1.12 billion to state-owned China Merchants Port Holdings, minister … Read more
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is to scale back a profitable but controversial deal to sell a deep-sea port to a Chinese company after widespread protests, the ports minister said Thursday. Arjuna Ranatunga said the government was renegotiating the sale of the debt-laden but strategically-located Hambantota port. It had hoped to transfer an 80 percent stake to … Read more