Highlights of the Press Conference
By H.E. Qi Zhenhong, Ambassador Of China To Sri Lanka.
March 21, 2022 Colombo
On 21 March 2022, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong held a two-hours press conference on China-Sri Lanka relationship at the Kingsbury Hotel. Around 70 journalists/reporters from 46 media agencies joined the conference. The following is the highlights of the press conference.
China- Sri Lanka friendship stands the test of time
Ambassador Qi introduced a series of celebrations and commemorations on the 65th anniversary of China-Sri Lanka diplomatic relations & 70th anniversary of the Rubber-Rice Pact.
- On 9th January 2022, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister H.E. Wang Yi visited Sri Lanka, and inaugurated the celebrations with President H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister H.E. Mahinda Rajapaksa with the “China-Sri Lanka Friendship Sailing Cup” at the Port City Colombo.
- On 17th February, the Communist Party of China and 20 government and opposition political parties in Sri Lanka jointly held a conference at the Nelum Pokuna to celebrate the anniversaries. H.E. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, sent a congratulatory letter to the conference. PM and Leader of the SLPP H.E. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Former President and Chairman of the SLFP H.E. Maithripala Sirisena, Leader of the Opposition and the SJB Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Former PM and Leader of the UNP Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe and other dignitaries were present.
- On 26th February, a Seth Pirith Chanting were conducted online and offline together by 65 Bhikkhus from Sri Lanka and 65 from China at the Abhayagiriya Temple at Anuradhapura, the Ole Temple at Colombo, the Putuo Temple at Zhuhai and the Lingguang Temple at Beijing. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahanayaka Theros from the Asgiri, the Malwatta and the Amarapura-Ramanna Nikaya Chapters delivered congratulatory and blessing messages to the event.
- On 8th March, a webinar was held to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Association for Sri Lanka – China Social and Cultural Cooperation. About 200 representatives from various friendship groups from China, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries joined online. Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong attended the event and delivered a speech to highlight the people-to-people friendship.
- On 18th March, an online dialogue conference of the think tanks from China and Sri Lanka was held in Kunming, China. Nearly 200 experts, scholars and enterprise representatives from the two countries attended the event via video link.
Ambassador Qi highlighted that the biggest experience learned in last seven decades is no matter how the domestic and situation changed, China is always a true, sincere and reliable friend of Sri Lanka.
China is the biggest source of FDI & external contributor to Sri Lanka’s development and employment under COVID-19
According to the annual report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, by the end of 2020, the stock of China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Sri Lanka stood at USD 2,188 million.
China is the biggest external contributor to Sri Lanka’s development and employment under COVID-19:Chinese companies strictly abide by the COVID-19 preventive measures and regulations issued by Sri Lankan authorities, and actively promote project construction in an orderly manner while ensuring the physical and mental health of employees. They have overcome all kinds of difficulties including pandemic, economic and financial hardship in Sri Lanka and ensured the mega-projects developing without interruption. So far, the Chinese companies and projects are hiring over 11,000 Sri Lankan employees.
CICT, the only deep-water terminal in South Asia, has won the award for the “Best Container Terminal in Asia” (under 4 million TEUs category) for five consecutive years. In 2021, its throughput surpassed 3.1 million TEUs for the first time (about half of the total volume of the Colombo Port). At present, CICT has around 1,850 employees, of which over 98% are Sri Lankan.
Despite the pandemic, HIP made great breakthroughs in both cargo handling and port investment. An overall throughput of 2.3 million metric tons of cargo was achieved in 2021, with RORO operations surpassing the 500,000 mark, a remarkable increase by 39%; bulk cargo exceeding 1.2 million MT, a significant increase of 59%. 42 companies have signed agreements to enter the international industry park and 10 projects have commenced construction.
China’s support to Sri Lanka has no strings attached
Even though international rating agencies downgrade Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt rating, China provides firm support to Sri Lanka with no strings attached. We have faith in Sri Lanka and its people being able to defeat challenges.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has provided consistent financial assistance worth of USD 2.8 billion to Sri Lanka for combating pandemic and reviving economy, which includes one billion U.S. dollars and two billion RMB term loan facility and ten billion RMB Currency SWAP.
New requests of USD 2.5 billion (USD 1 billion financing facility and USD 1.5 billion buyer’s credit) were raised by Sri Lankan government to Chinese government recently. China understands the urgent need of Sri Lanka and its people. Relevant authorities in China are promptly studying the request.
China's Aid Projects expedite uninterruptedly despite the COVID-19 pandemic
Since the establishment of China-Sri Lana diplomatic relations 65 years ago, the Chinese government has been providing all kinds of assistance to Sri Lanka, with more than 100 grant projects, and provided training programs to tens of thousands of Sri Lankan professionals (7,000 professionals have been trained 2014-2022). The iconic BMICH, the Superior Courts Complex, the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre, and the China-Sri Lanka Friendship Nephrology Hospital etc. are historic testaments of the close relationship. Even the COVID-19 pandemic cannot pull China’s Aid projects off their stride.
China-Sri Lanka Friendship National Nephrology Specialized Hospital in Polonnaruwa: The hospital has an area of 25,000 square meters, featuring 200 general inpatient beds, 100 hemodialysis beds which makes it the biggest nephrology specialized hospital in South Asia. The grant amount is RMB 460 million (apx. USD 72 million). Construction started in July 2018 and the hospital was opened in June 2021. The hospital has successfully performed a kidney transplant surgery from a living donor recently, the first of its kind since the operation of the hospital.
- Joint Research and Demonstration Center for Water Technology in the University of Peradeniya: The project is to focus on providing safe drinking water and carrying out research on the origin of CKDu (chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology). The grant amount is RMB 81 million (apx. USD 13 million). Construction started in September 2018 and the handover certificates were signed in January 2021. It covers a total area of 5,000 square meters, which makes it the largest research center for the safety of drinking water in South Asia.
- The Outpatient Building of National Hospital: The gross floor area is 49,150 square meters and the designed daily outpatient visits are 6,000. The amount of grant is RMB 489 million (apx. USD 77 million). Construction started in August 2014 and is estimated to be completed by April 2022.
- 1996 Units of Subsidized Housing for the Low-Income Families: In January 2022, the exchange of letters for the project was done. The amount of grant (construction cost) shall be within RMB 552 million (apx. USD 87 million).
- In 2021, more than 800 Sri Lankan trainees participated in multilateral and bilateral training courses online, covering a wide range of fields including agriculture, manufacturing, trade, education, health care, transportation, information and communication, public management, etc.
