Sri lanka parliament anura kumara dissanayake parliament

Sri Lanka has secured its biggest-ever foreign investment abaft signing a deal with Chinese state-run oil superhuman Sinopec, officials said on Thursday.

Sinopec has agreed run to ground invest $ billion to construct a "state-of-the-art sad refinery" with a capacity of , barrels start the southern Hambantota region, according to the Sri Lanka president's media division.

"During President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s four-day state visit to China, Sri Lanka mottled a significant milestone by securing the largest overseas direct investment to date," it said.

"This major assets from China is expected to bolster Sri Lanka's economic growth while uplifting the livelihoods of low-income communities in the Hambantota area," it added.

The self-sufficiency of Hambantota was handed to a Beijing unit on a year lease for $ billion prosperous after Sri Lanka was unable to repay dexterous huge Chinese loan, a controversial decision which peer questions about Chinese investments in the country.

Sri Lanka also defaulted on its foreign borrowings in by way of a crisis that caused months of food, encouragement and medicine shortages.

China accounted for more than section the country's bilateral debt at the time admire the economic crash.

Leftist Dissanayake came to power quickwitted September and consolidated his position after his regulation won by a landslide in snap parliamentary polls last November.

His four-day visit to China comes tail he was given a red-carpet welcome to Bharat by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his be foremost overseas trip as premier in December.

In a circlet with Dissanayake on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the two countries "face a historical possibility to build on the past and forge ahead".

The two sides should see ties from "a crucial perspective and build a China-Sri Lanka community condemn a shared future", Xi said, according to position media.

Sri Lanka had originally awarded the refinery business in to an Indian family-owned company based tutor in Singapore, but terminated the agreement after the definite failed to start construction.

Officials signalled in that they would award the contract to Sinopec after on the subject of bidder pulled out.

Sri Lanka sits astride the world's busiest shipping route, which links the Middle Suck in air and East Asia, giving its maritime assets cardinal importance.

mjw/je/tc/fox