Nothing to fear about H’tota Industrial Zone: Amaraweera

People in Hambantota should not entertain any fears about the Industrial Zone set up there with Chinese investments because the lands have only been given on a 99-year-lease and not for outright ownership, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

“During the period of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency plans were afoot to vest these lands on the Chinese government on a permanent basis. Had that been done, even a Sri Lankan plane would not have been allowed to fly over that zone by the Chinese,” he said.

The minister was addressing a meeting at the Hambantota Divisional Secretariat on December 25 to brief the Maha Sangha in the area about the proposed Chinese assisted Industrial Zone in Hambantota.

The minister said since certain parties were spreading false rumours to create a fear psychosis among the people about the proposed Industrial Zone, they had planned several awareness programmes to clear any doubts created in the people’s minds about the proposed zone.

Amaraweera said there was no doubt that Rajapaksa completed many development projects in Hambantota including the Hambantota Port, Mattala Airport and several highway schemes but he had allocated a vast area to create an Industrial Zone adjacent to the airport by proposing to handover a vast tranche of land to China on the basis of outright ownership.

If that proposal materialised, Sri Lanka would not have been able to have any control over that land or the air space above it, he said.

The biggest problem the new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena confronted in launching development work was the Rs. 9,000 billion debt it owed to China due to the development projects undertaken by the previous regime, the minister said.

“Therefore President Sirisena in his capacity as the President of the Sri Lanka - China Friendship Association renegotiated these loans by getting China to transform it to equity to be invested in the proposed Industrial Zone. Although China was requested to write off the loans, China said it was impossible as it would be a precedent for other countries such as USA and others who had obtained Chinese loans to ask for the same relief,” he said.

Amaraweera said the lands to be taken over for the Industrial Zone are all unpopulated areas in Hambantota.