Belt and Road Initiative a win-win situation for all, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is "a win-win situation for all", Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry said Wednesday.

Sri Lanka looks forward to being a very respectful partner in the BRI, the minister said when taking questions from the media at an event themed "Commemoration of 10th Anniversary of Belt & Road Initiative, Milestones of China & Sri Lanka Relations" held at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing.

For Sri Lanka, the Belt and Road cooperation is first about developing infrastructure. Sri Lanka wants to position itself as a transportation hub and a financial hub, the minister said, elaborating that "in order to do that, we need to invest on infrastructure, build new ports, improve the capacity of the port, build new airports, improve the capacity of the airport and build a new financial city". 

According to him, cooperation projects such as the Hambantota Port and the Colombo Port City have been "laying the foundation and getting the infrastructure in place", and the second phase is to utilize that infrastructure to achieve economic growth.

He said that Sri Lanka is now looking for foreign collaboration on building factories, manufacturing facilities, technology transfer, education, among others.

"Chinese investment are very, very important for not only Sri Lanka's growth, but the global developing countries", the minister said.

"For me and for my country, China had been a friend, China had been a partner in progress and it will continue to be a partner in progress", he said.