India, Japan back in Sri Lanka port project Â
Context:
- Sri Lanka said it will develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at the Colombo Port, along with India and Japan.
- The decision comes a month after the Rajapaksa government ejected the two partners from a 2019 tripartite agreement to jointly develop the East Container Terminal (ECT), citing resistance to “foreign involvement”.
Background:
- Both India and Japan had expressed displeasure about Colombo “unilaterally” pulling out of the 2019 agreement.
- The deal had been signed by the former Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government.
- The February 1 decision came amid mounting opposition from port worker unions and sections of the clergy to “foreign involvement” in the country’s national assets.
- The Rajapaksa government has offered India and Japan the WCT as an alternative, allowing higher stakes.
- In the ECT project agreed upon earlier, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) was to hold majority 51%, but in the WCT proposal, India and Japan will be accorded 85% stake, as is the case in the nearby Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), where China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited holds 85%, the government said.
- The West Container Terminal, however, has to be built from scratch, requiring a much higher investment.
- The WCT is adjacent to the China-run CICT and just a couple of kilometres away from the China-backed Port City being built on reclaimed land, making it a strategically desirable spot for India, whose concerns over China’s presence in Sri Lanka are well known.
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