China Is Sri Lanka’s Top Lender
China lent US $1.2 billion to build roads, a coal power project, and a port in the island’s south last year – more than half the total of US $2.2 billion in foreign aid in 2009.
China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s biggest single lender in 2009, overtaking the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the treasury said on March 3.
Project loans accounted for US $1.9 billion of the total, with another US $279.6 million in grants, the treasury said, ahead of the 2010 budget.
Western donors have curbed aid to Sri Lanka over human rights issues and the government’s handling of the final weeks of a 37-year-old conflict with Tamil Tiger separatists, which ended last May. The US has scaled back military assistance to Colombo, while Germany and Britain have pruned their aid to Sri Lanka. The European Union is also set to withdraw trade concessions to Sri Lanka from August.
As ties with allies in the West have soured, President Mahinda Rajapakse has deepened ties with Japan, India, China, Myanmar, as well as Iran.
“The government of China, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank were the three main donors who accounted for US $1.9 billion or 84.3 percent of the total commitment in 2009,” the report said.
Originally published on March 3, 2010 by The Straits Times.
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