Sunday, 09th November 2014
Camelia Nathaniel
Sri Lanka and China last week reiterated their pledge to make the Chinese Maritime Silk Route a success. At a seminar held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies, a number of experts including the Governor of the Central Bank, Ajith Nivard Cabral, and the Chinese Ambassador Wu Jianghao, spoke of the multifarious benefits that would accrue to Sri Lanka from the ambitious Chinese project to revive the ancient sea route linking East Asia with Europe via Sri Lanka.
Cabral said that with Sri Lanka forging ahead with the development of five hubs (maritime, aviation, energy, knowledge and commercial), under the Mahinda Chinthana, it should be a vital link in the Maritime Silk Route.
Sri Lanka has built a brand new deep water port at Hambantota and is building a second deep water port at Colombo along with a plush Port City which could be the nerve centre of commercial activity. He said that Sri Lanka can become a Singapore which is but a port city with a first rate commercial infrastructure.
A new airport has come up in Mattala. The country has built world class roads crisscrossing it. As for energy, coal-fired power plants are coming up or are expanding. And there are the 99 World War II vintage tanks at Trincomalee, which were originally meant to serve Allied ships and planes. These could be the nucleus of an energy hub.
All this would be on China’s Maritime Silk Route, straddling East Asia and Europe. While the route would serve Chinese global trade, it will also bring businesses to Sri Lanka’s ports and their hinterland, Cabral said. The activity spurred by traffic will give a boost to the development of hubs other than the maritime hub.
The Chinese Ambassador clarified that the Maritime Silk Route has no strategic or military dimension and that it is purely commercial and developmental. It will further develop Sino-Sri Lankan relations which have already become a strategic partnership enveloping economic, commercial and defence matters.
However, some observers said that making the Trincomalee oil tanks part of the Chinese Maritime Silk Route may not go down well with the Indians who claim to have a monopolistic hold on Trinconalee, basing their claim on the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.
The tanks were leased to the Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) by the pro-India UNP government during the 2002-2004 peace process.
From : http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2014/11/09/lanka-china-pledge-to-make-silk-route-a-success/
