China to continue to support Sri Lanka's economic, social development: ambassador

China will continue to support Sri Lanka's economic and social development, to further help Sri Lanka become a financial center in South Asia and the world, China's Ambassador to Sri Lanka Yi Xianliang told journalists in Colombo on Tuesday.

Ambassador Yi said that further cooperation between China and Sri Lanka under the framework of "One Belt One Road" was expected as this would bring huge progress to the island nation.

Yi pointed out that within the past two years, China-Sri Lanka relations once suffered a 'low period' but relations were back on track and China looked forward to investing more in the island country if the country maintains a clear and consistent policy.

The ambassador further said that a mega 1.4 billion dollar Port City project, now known as the Colombo International Financial City had resumed construction after a suspension of 1.5 years and this was Sri Lanka's largest direct foreign investment to date.

He added that China and Sri Lanka would also enter into the third round of talks for a Free Trade Agreement this month and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was also working on promoting an Industrial Zone in the southern coast of Hambantota, dedicated for Chinese investments.

All these facts, he said, had proved that the strong friendship shared between China and Sri Lanka could stand the test of time.

Regarding the Port City, Yi said that the Chinese investors had resumed the project after the government's nod despite suffering a loss of 1 million dollars per day due to the suspension.

Yi further noted that the Norocholai coal power plant, the only Coal Power Plant in the country, was another major project of China-Sri Lanka cooperation, which provides 50 percent of electricity consumption to the island.

The plant also creates a net profit of 1 million dollars per day for the Sri Lankan government.

He said the recent power failures in the island was not caused by the internal failure of the power plant, but was instead a break down of the national power grid.

China has become one of Sri Lanka's largest development partners with infrastructure construction projects worth 15.5 billion dollars completed in Sri Lanka by the end of 2015.

China is also one of the major FDI sources of Sri Lanka, with direct investments of 409 million dollars, which is increasing rapidly, the ambassador said.

China has also contributed towards the island's tourism sector which suffered severely due to a 30 year civil conflict, with nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka from January to August this year. Endit