Shri lankan government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella announced that cabinet has approved
the project, to be run as a public-private company with the Ports Authority and companies selected by
the governments of India and Japan.
This agreement was issued in 2019 but approved in 2021.
WHAT IS THIS AGGREEMENT ALL ABOUT
In this aggreement India and Japan has to develop a new container terminal at the country's main
port, several weeks after scrapping a deal with the two countries to develop one of the key terminals
at the same port.
Sri Lanka halted the 2019 agreement for India and Japan to develop and operate the crucial East
Container Terminal at Colombo Port after weeks of protests by trade unions and opposition parties. It
said the terminal will be fully owned and developed instead by the state-run Ports Authority.
INVESTORS
India has selected Adani ports, which was earlier chosen to invest in the East Container Terminal.
Japan has not yet named its investor in the project, which will be operated on a build, operate and
transfer basis for 35 years.
Shri Lankan spokesperson also added the government was offering foreign participation in the West
terminal because it requires a large investment to be developed, while the East terminal is completed
and requires little additional money.
BENEFITS OF INDIA
Shri Lanka lies in the Indian ocean belt and this ocenic region is not that developed , by the help of this
east terminal the exports will rise upto 66%.
Also India's rival China growing economical and political influence on shri Lanka , by this terminal the
bond between India and Shri Lanka will be stronger and we will be less worried About chinese invasion.
CHINESE DEBT TRAP
Shri Lanka being not so stable country on the globe and also being the neighbouring country of India
therefore china has being halting over it.
China already operates the Colombo International Container Terminal as a joint venture with the Ports
Authority.
China considers Sri Lanka to be a critical link in its massive “Belt and Road" global infrastructure
building initiative and has provided billions of dollars in loans for Sri Lankan projects over the past
decade. The projects include a seaport, airport, port city, highways and power stations.
China already operates the Colombo International Container Terminal as a joint venture with the Ports
Authority.
Critics say the Chinese-funded projects are not financially viable and that Sri Lanka will face difficulty
in repaying the loans.
In 2017, Sri Lanka leased a Chinese-built port located near busy shipping routes to a Chinese company
for 99 years to end the heavy burden of repaying the Chinese loan used to build it.
THE ISSUE
India and Japan had earlier expressed displeasure about Colombo “unilaterally” pulling out of the
2019 tripartite agreement, 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.
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.
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