PM’s visit to China will herald a new chapter for bilateral ties: Dr. Amunugama

By Charumini de Silva

A top government official yesterday declared that the forthcoming visit to China by Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe would be the opening of a new chapter in the long-association between the two countries, leading to the signing of several landmark agreements.

Minister of Special Assignments Dr. Sarath Amunugama said that during this visit, the Government intends to hold discussions and sign agreements to develop Hambantota as the biggest strategic investment for Sri Lanka with an aim to turnaround the district’s loss making airport and harbour, while allowing 100 Chinese factories to be established in the country.  Delivering the keynote address at a seminar titled ‘Sri Lanka – China Relations: Challenges and Way Forward’ organised by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), Dr. Amunugama pointed out that Sri Lanka, in its search for rapid economic expansion,  will take lessons from China and open itself up to investment between the two countries. He added that Sri Lanka sincerely and genuinely is very lucky to have China as a firm friend right from the beginning.

Noting that China is the greatest success story of modern times, as a ‘superpower’ economy Dr. Amunugama said that if the unprecedented level of Chinese growth continued for another decade, it would have caused a collapse of the US economy. He pointed out that China became successful within their ideology, especially under the great leadership of Mao Zedong and other leaders which led them to take firm decisions in order to be a superpower economy of the world. “The social investment on poverty and famine was converted into a marketable workforce, while surplus in the state owned enterprises (SOEs) were utilised for infrastructure development. Thus, these economic eternal verities can be learned from China,” he added. Outlining immediate difficulties in fast-tracked development, the Minister said, “When you have rapid economic expansions, land becomes a very critical factor.  In this process we need to have land, labour and banks to support it, but unfortunately in Sri Lanka all three are blocked. We have no free access to capital, we have all sorts of welfare schemes that stop labour and we have bad banking which prevents capital. Therefore, unless the country is ready to take hardball decisions, it is very difficult to think we can turn Sri Lanka around.”

Dr. Amunugama also said that trilateral relations between China, India and Japan are very crucial for the future growth of Sri Lanka.