“How could an outside party or country take ownership of a port without the consent of the government that runs it? The claims by bankrupt elements do not hold ground and they are silly,” the State Minister said, adding that the Government will find ways to fund the development of the West Terminal and even all other assets that need to be made productive for the growth of the economy. The State Minister said that the question now is to find funds to develop the terminals of the Colombo Port and that the Government will find a different way to finance it. The Cabinet last week gave the nod to operate the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port as a fully-owned container terminal of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority moving away from the previous stance to operate the terminal with India and Japan while the Posts Authority holds 51 percent stake in the operations. However, reports indicated that the government had decided to operate the proposed West Container Terminal of the Colombo Port as a public-private partnership between Indian and Japanese parties and the SLPA in compliance with the Memorandum of Cooperation signed for ECT in 2019 by the previous regime.

Source: Sunday Observer February 06, 2021 20:03 UTC