Sri Lankan president thanks China for help

Colombo  :  Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday expressed appreciation for China’s help in post-war reconstruction.

Sri Lanka welcomes investment from China and other parts of the world, Rajapaksa said at the concluding press conference of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here, Xinhua reported.

China has provided loans to Sri Lanka in building ports, highways, railways and power plants.

The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, the main venue of the CHOGM, was donated by the Chinese government in the 1970s and was refurbished for CHOGM, the most important meeting of the 53-member bloc.

Sri Lanka’s second highway, funded by a Chinese loan of $292 million, opened in October, reducing the time for travel between the country’s main international airport and Colombo to just 30 minutes from one-and-a-half hours.

Since Sri Lanka ended a three-decade civil war in 2009, China has emerged as the island’s largest loan provider with $1.2 billion delivered in 2009 and $821 million in 2010.