Sri Lanka dispels cloud over Chinese projects

Sri Lanka has probed all Chinese projects where questions about “governance issues” have been raised in certain quarters and mitigation measures taken to “lay rest to any claim of bad governance,” Arjuna Mahendran, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, said on Tuesday.

Chinese investments in the country during the last five years, until 2014, were “very large” and a sum of $8 billion to $ nine billion was borrowed for various infrastructure projects.

The governor said Sri Lanka had to approach IMF as global volatile conditions in 2015 resulted in the loss of $2 billion in short-term capital, which had flowed in during the preceding five years.

“That was a big kick on our balance of payments position. This was why we had reached out to the IMF,” Mr. Mahendran said. The assistance would also be helpful in “sending signals” to the international investor community about the country’s adoption of policies in tune with international norms of good governance. (The Hindu)