Colombo, Feb 8 (NIA) – The Sri Lankan government, on Wednesday said any country could invest in the Hambantota economic zone, in the south of the country although it was being funded by China.
“Even though these zones are funded by Chinese money it need not be a Chinese only zone. Infact we would like to see other countries investing. We would like to see the world coming in,” Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera told the Foreign Correspondents Association of Sri Lanka.
Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka had become the ideal destination for investments and the government wanted to ensure that it had an investor conducive environment.
Reiterating the government’s stand, Samaraweera said Sri Lanka shared a very close relationship with China and it looked forward to working very closely with the Chinese government.
“China is one of world’s emerging economies and we want to work closely with them while we maintain close relations with all our traditional friends as well,” Samaraweera said.
“We have a very good relationship with China. Ofcourse we had to renegotiate some of the investments and the loans they had made here in Sri Lanka.”
In addition to Hambantota, Samaraweera said the government would like to see more international investments in Trincomalee and other parts of the country as well.
