With a direct investment of US$1.4 billion, Chinese firms are building the new Colombo Port City.
Details:The land reclamation project of Colombo Port City is underway in an orderly manner. The picture shows the dredging vessel "Jet Ocean 1" carrying out the blowing and filling operation at the site.
The project employs more than 1,000 Sri Lankan employees, with a peak of about 2,500.
Sri Lanka is located at the center of the Indian Ocean shipping lanes and is known as the "Crossroads of the East". Since ancient times, it has been an important part of the Maritime Silk Road, an important pivot point connecting Asia and Africa and radiating the South Asian subcontinent.
Based on this location, Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, is ushering in new development opportunities as a port city. By the Sri Lankan government and Chinese enterprises to invest in the development of a new commercial city of the sea port is in the stage of land reclamation. Plans to reclaim 269 hectares of land, the planned construction scale of 5.65 million square meters, mainly including residential, hotels, office buildings, shopping malls and other ancillary facilities, the project is scheduled to form the initial scale in 5 to 8 years, 20 to 25 years all construction is completed.
The goal of the project is to create the first high-end central business district (CBD) in South Asia and build a new city that can accommodate 250,000 people. Port City project is an important project of the "Belt and Road", and at the same time with Sri Lanka's "Great Western Province" strategy. The implementation of the port city project will promote Sri Lanka's national economic development, and strongly enhance the national image and international competitiveness.
Land-making project is progressing well, aiming at the end of the year to enter the pre-sale stage of the land
Colombo's Golfis Esplanade, coconut shadows, tourists like weaving. A huge land reclamation project is underway on the beach enclosed between Colombo's South Pier and Golfis Marina Square. The breakwater under construction is about to be merged, loading and unloading trucks, excavators, cranes, mixers, sprinklers, heavy-duty trucks, tugboats, open-bottomed barges, flat barges and other dozens of engineering machinery and equipment are running in an orderly manner, and truckloads and shiploads of large stone materials are being transported into the site and thrown to the designated sea area; in the construction site formed by the land area, the largest self-propelled rake suction dredger in Asia, "Jet Ocean 1" is carrying out the blowing and filling operation. "is carrying out blowing and filling operations, the bow of the ship sprayed a huge "salon" in the air after a perfect arc to the near shore, the new land area to the sea a little bit extended, the sea into the earth.
The Colombo Port City project is invested and developed by China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) and implemented by China Harbor Colombo Port City Limited Company (CHCC) under CCCC. ("Port City Company"), a subsidiary of CCCC, to carry out specific development and operation.
Jiang Houliang, general manager of the port city company, told this reporter that the project started on September 17, 2014, during which it experienced a one-and-a-half-year suspension, and resumed in September 2016 after signing a new tripartite agreement. The project, with a direct investment of 1.4 billion US dollars, will lead to secondary development investment of about 13 billion US dollars and create more than 83,000 long-term jobs in Sri Lanka.
Wang Hao, the owner's representative of the Port City Company, said that since the resumption of work last year, the overall project has progressed ahead of schedule, with land formation having reached more than 60 hectares.
Jiang Houliang said the project was not an intergovernmental project but a public-private partnership (PPP) investment and financing project. Specifically, the Sri Lankan government is responsible for various environmental, planning and construction permits, while CCCC is responsible for investment and financing, planning, construction and operation, with 70 percent of the funding coming from a commercial loan from the China Development Bank. Of the 269 hectares of land created by the reclamation, Port City was awarded 116 hectares of commercially developed land, while the Sri Lankan government was awarded 62 hectares of commercially developed land and 91 hectares of public land.
Jiang Houliang said the Port City project took four years from its inception to the final signing of the contract, with both sides putting in a lot of effort. The land-making project is now progressing smoothly, with a view to entering the pre-sale stage of the land by the end of the year.
Jiang Houliang said the company also provided 500 million Sri Lankan rupees (1 U.S. dollar is about 149 rupees) for the affected fishermen to support them to buy accident insurance, help them build schools and provide employment opportunities.
Sri Lanka's largest foreign investment project, to establish the importance of Chinese enterprises
Sri Lanka's Western Metropolitan Ministry of Urban Planning Deputy Director Fernando told this reporter that this is Sri Lanka's current single largest foreign investment project, a strong boost to Sri Lanka's infrastructure construction, is the Sri Lankan government to make a right choice, will benefit Sri Lanka in the long term. Fernando said that the city of Colombo will have 269 hectares of extra land, accounting for 7% of the area of the city center of Colombo, which will greatly contribute to the development of the city. Theme parks, marinas, central parks, hotels, medical facilities, convention centers, educational facilities, condominiums and many other facilities will be built here. It will have beautiful beaches, a beautiful environment, every Sri Lankan will enjoy world class public **** facilities and tens of thousands of people will work and live in this newly created land. This new city is connected to the Colombo port, airport and highway, and this place will become an important economic link to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, etc. The Sri Lankan government will build a unique financial and commercial center in Colombo and even in South Asia in the port city, making Sri Lanka one of the important centers of economic activity in the Indian Ocean region.
Wang Hao said more than 1,000 Sri Lankan employees are now employed at the project site, with a peak of about 2,500. Susta, an environmental engineer at the site, has worked for the Sri Lankan National Environmental Protection Agency for 10 years, and previously worked for other Chinese companies for many years, making him familiar with Sri Lanka's environmental protection policies and regulations. In Susta's opinion, China Harbor has done an impeccable job in environmental protection. "The sand required for land reclamation comes from sea sand, and in order to ensure the coastal environment and fish, the sand extraction areas are all 5 kilometers away from the coastline, with a water depth of 15 meters or less, so that the coastline will not be eroded. The sand extraction area involves traditional fishing grounds and fish habitats, for which the project company has conducted a lot of research in advance to find out the fish spawning areas and traditional fishing places in the coastal reefs, and the sand extraction in the outer sea avoids these reefs and fishery areas, and after calculations, the sand extraction in the outer sea is selected in the place with the lowest impact on the marine current field."
China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, Yi Xianliang, told this reporter that Sri Lanka is committed to building itself into an Indian Ocean shipping, finance and logistics center, this strategy has many points of convergence with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative, China and Sri Lanka are constantly strengthening the strategic docking for **** build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road through cooperation.
Easy Xianliang said, Colombo Port City project is currently Sri Lanka's largest foreign investment projects, the project established Chinese enterprises in Sri Lanka's economic development process of an important position. The resumption of the project has become a "wind vane" for the improvement of the investment environment in Sri Lanka, which will bring more space and platform for the transformation and upgrading of the national economy. Yi Xianliang said, Colombo Port City is a benchmark for Chinese enterprises to participate in economic cooperation in South Asia, but also a benchmark project for the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. As an investment project with large investment amount and high technology level, the Port City is a representative project of the transformation of Chinese enterprises' "going out", reflecting the strong strength of China's foreign investment and conveying a positive signal of cooperation to regional countries. The Port City project is an important docking project for the "Belt and Road" cooperation initiative and Chinese enterprises' "going out", which will drive Chinese capital, technology and management methods and other "Chinese standards" to the world and expand their global influence. It will drive Chinese capital, technology and management methods and other "Chinese standards" to the world and expand their global influence.