Ranil defends China deals while courting investment from India and Japan

by Abi
Mar 27, 2018

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister has defended the country's deals with China, while courting investment from India and Japan.

In an interview in Colombo, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe defended a deal last year that gave a joint venture led by state-owned China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd. a 99-year lease to the southern port of Hambantota, Bloomberg reports.

“We’ve been looking at inviting a broad range of foreign investors," he said. "Initially the investors will come from China, Japan, India. Then the others will follow. We’d like to see them coming in from Europe.”

The Prime Minister said that Sri Lanka needs to “focus on what is achievable and doable” by courting Asian investors first.

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