Sri Lanka PM will attend Belt and Road summit

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will attend the Belt and Road Initiative summit planned for May, according to the country's ambassador to China, Karunasena Kodituwakku.

The Beijing forum is expected to involve additional discussions on the scope of the international cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping.

When asked about the initiative's role in his nation's infrastructure development, Kodituwakku said, "It will be complementary for Sri Lanka." He spoke with reporters at a national day reception at the Sri Lankan embassy in Beijing on Saturday.

Although the ambassador declined to comment on which projects are likely to be discussed at the summit, he said Sri Lanka may come up with its own proposals.

"In the next 100 years, shipping will play a very big role in international trade. There we will have an advantage," Kodituwakku said, adding that his country, located in the Indian Ocean amid the busiest shipping lanes in the world, aspires to be a financial center like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Since the end of a decadeslong civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka has turned its attention to building infrastructure. China has emerged as the largest foreign investor, with its companies involved in developing a port in the southern town of Hambantota, an international airport in nearby Mattala and a power plant in northwestern Norochcholai.

Chinese foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka was nearly $330 million in 2014, Sri Lankan officials have said. The latest figures weren't immediately available.

During his visit, Wickremesinghe is also likely to bring up a free trade agreement that Sri Lanka hopes to finalize with China this year. The island nation is eager to complete a deal, in part because of the $3.5 billion deficit with China, one of its top trading partners.

A period of uncertainty over Chinese projects had cropped up after Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's government came to power in 2015. While things seemed to have settled down, local media reported protests in January at the site of an industrial zone to be built by China in Hambantota. The protests raised concerns in Beijing.

But on Saturday, Kodituwakku downplayed the reports, saying the number of protesters was small and that Sri Lanka will go ahead with the project.

"I must say the government of China did not ask for land...or the port," Kodituwakku said. "It is our own solution, our own proposal."

Colombo sought a Chinese investor for the industrial zone in Hambantota, he said. "China did not impose any condition." Hong Kong-based China Merchants Port Holdings got the contract.

On Sri Lanka's external debt, he said the situation is expected to improve by 2019 as many future projects will be provided on a build-transfer-operate basis rather than being financed by loans.