Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters චීනෙට විකුණලා

Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters චීනෙට විකුණලා

The government’s sale of several acres of land currently occupied by the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters across the road from the Galle Face Green to a foreign hotel venture has not aroused much debate in either media or Opposition circles, as might have been expected.

The Hong Kong based Shangri La leisure group has bought 10 acres of the prime seafront property for $125 million for the purpose of constructing a luxury hotel. It appears that another foreign hotel project is also envisaged in this location. An Information Department statement in January said the “Ministry of Defence, Office of the Chief of Defence Staff and Army Headquarters along with Headquarters of other Armed Forces with residential facilities” would be relocating to Battaramulla to make way for “two giant foreign projects that will bring FDI of USD 1000 million.” It is not clear whether the sale includes the Air Force Headquarters facing Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawatha.

Deputy Economic Development Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has said the deal was done outside of tender procedures. When UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake raised a question in Parliament in this regard on Tuesday, Minister Yapa defended the transaction arguing that the company in question was a “reputable” one and that the land, sold at $12.5 million per acre, was given at “three times the value” and therefore there was no cause for complaint.

Sunday February 13, 2011
- http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110213/Columns/Lasandak.html

Deputy Economic Development Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane told the Business Times that Shangri-La has paid US$ 75 million initially to buy six acres of land and US$ 50 million thereafter, for another four acres totalling US$125 for 10 acres, in Colombo. “The transfer of ownership of this land followed state legislation and was only valued and conducted after obtaining approval from the cabinet of ministers and the Government Valuer’s future commercial valuation,” he said.

Sunday October 30, 2011
- http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111030/BusinessTimes/bt01.html




Image source: Google Earth Historical Imagery feature


රටේ වැදගත් "ආරක්ෂක මර්මස්ථාන" (බයි බාසාවෙන්) පිටරටවලට බද්දට නෙමෙයි සින්නකරම විකුණන කොට දැන් හම්බන්තොට, මොනරාගල මුඩු බිම් industrial zone එකක් දාන්න බද්දට දෙන්න හදනකොට උඩපනින බය්යෝ කොහෙද බන් හිටියේ ?

Jigsaw puzzle in Shangri-La and CATIC land deals
Deputy Minister says $261.5 mln received; Treasury account has only $76 mln

By Bandula Sirimanna

Discrepancy in facts and figures publicly announced by the government in the Colombo land deal involving Hong Kong based Shangri-La hotels and state-run China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC) from time to time has created confusion as the total sales proceeds cannot be traced in Treasury’s general account number 6000, hotel industry analysts said.

Although a deputy minister has announced that a sum of US$ 261.5 million had been received from the two deals, there was no record to prove it in Treasury accounts, they added. At a press conference on Wednesday, Deputy Economic Development Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane said a sum of US $ 261.5 million received by the sale of the 20 acre land to the Shangri-La and CATIC companies had been deposited in the Treasury’s general account number 6000 in a transparent manner. Cabinet approval had been received for this project and the gazette notification also issued, he said.

However when contacted by the Business Times, Mr Abeywardane said that Shangri-La has paid US$ 75 million initially to buy six acres of land and US$ 50 million thereafter, for another four acres totalling US$125 for 10 acres. He said that upon re-assessing the value of land adjacent to the Shangri-la land with the impact of its development by Shangri-la, the other 10 acres of land was given to the Chinese Company CATIC for US$ 136.5 million. The total amount received by the government from these two deals is US$ 261.5 million. He told the Business Times that a Bank of Ceylon cheque to the value of US$125 million given by Shangri-La had been deposited in the Treasury General account number 6000.

A letter sent by Secretary to the Treasury Dr. P.B Jayasundara confirming the payment was forwarded along with other documents to the Land Registrar to transfer the deeds, to Shangri-La, he revealed.
However the amount of US$125 million paid by Shangri-La was not in the Government gazette No 1700/4 dated 5th April 2011 although Mr Abeywardane claimed that all the details had been included in the gazette. The gazette notification says that the total investment of Shangri-La for the project was US$283 million. But all the details including the money paid by Shangri-La are only included in the Government gazette No 1700/5 dated 5th April 2011 where it is stated that the company paid a sum of US$3.5 million to buy a private land in Hambantota for their Hambantota hotel and the total investment is US$109 million.

Asked about this discrepancy, Mr. Abeywardane said the Treasury has confirmed the payment and all these documents were tabled in parliament. But according to official sources, only a sum of US$ 76 million was recorded in the Treasury ledger. “We want to know how the sale proceeds of Shangri-La and CATIC at Galle Face are being accounted for.

We are not accusing anyone of anything quite yet, but we are unable to see the proceeds of sale in the treasury accounts. We want full transparency in these privatizations,” economic expert and UNP MP Dr. Harsha De Silva told the Business Times. If by any chance the accounts are off-balance sheet then the expenditure can also be off balance sheet, he added.

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- http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110703/BusinessTimes/bt02.html

ruchira55 said:

චීනෙට වික්කට අවුලක් නෑ. ඉන්දියාවට වික්කා නම් ටඋකෝවන හැට බලගන්න තිබ්බා

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Shangri-Le ekata meha idama India walata thamai 99-year deela thiyenne - ITC Colombo One

The Board of Investment (BOI) signed an agreement with Kolkata-based ITC for a mixed development project opposite the Galle Face Green.

...

Ironically, the BOI venture with ITC was also signed on the same day - May 4 - when the Indian company representatives committed to make payment of US$73.5 million as the lease premium to the BOI for the 99-year lease. This sum of money was then transferred to the Treasury, an official said.

ITC is the Indian Tobacco Company with diversified interests ranging from Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards and Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods and Confectionery, Information Technology, Branded Apparel, Personal Care, Stationery, Safety Matches and other FMCG products. Its hotel business comprises over 100 owned and managed properties spread across India that started with its own hotel chain ITC-Welcomgroup Hotel Chola.

Sunday May 13, 2012
- http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120513/BusinessTimes/bt02.html

Identity said:

මහින්ද වික්කට අවුලක් නෑ, මයිත්‍රී හරි රනිල් හරි වික්කොත් තමයි මට කාල ඉන්න බැරි

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Another one

Container volumes up 28-pct at Chinese terminal in Sri Lanka port

Sri Lanka's Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT), run by China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPH), said its container volumes grew 28% to two million in 2016, its second year of operations, from the year before.

- http://www.economynext.com/Containe...nese_terminal_in_Sri_Lanka_port-3-6981-6.html


CMPort(China Merchants Port Holdings) was formerly known as China Merchants Holdings (International) Ltd or CMHI. Its name was changed in April last year. It is the same entity that signed an agreement on September 16, 2014, with the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration to develop the Hambantota port.

These details transpired during a meeting between President Sirisena and Chinese Ambassador Yi on Wednesday when the latter met the President to raise concerns over corruption allegations related to the Hambantota deal.

In 2014, a Supply, Operate and Transfer (SOT) agreement for the Hambantota Port Phase II was entered into between representatives of CMHI, China Construction Company Ltd and the SLPA in the presence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The partners in the SOT project were to have been CMHI, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd and the SLPA.

- http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170101/news/high-level-concern-over-htota-project-222626.html

මහින්ද CMPort(China Merchants Port Holdings) එකට වරායවල් බදු දුන්නහම හොඳායි

රක්ෂිත වනාන්තර ඇතුළු අක්කර 60,000ක් US Doleට දීලා

- http://elakiri.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1779990

මහින්ද CMPort(China Merchants Port Holdings) එකට වරායවල් දුන්නහම හොඳායි

China Merchants sign two agreements to develop Phase 2 of Hambantota Port Development Project

Following discussions between the Chinese President Xi Jinping, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 16 September 2014, China Merchants (Holdings) International Co., Ltd. (CMHI) and the government of Sri Lanka has signed two agreements in relation to the development of Phase II of the Hambantota Port Development Project.

An agreement on key terms in relation to the Supply, Operate and Transfer (SOT) of Phase II of the Hambantota Container Port Project was signed by President of CMHI Li Jianhong and the President of China Communications Construction Company Ltd. (CCCC) Chen Fenjian with the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama.

An agreement on the development of an international maritime center in Sri Lanka was executed by the Assistant General Manager of China Merchants Group Limited and the Managing Director of CMHI Hu Jianhua and Secretary of the Ministry of Highways, Ports and Shipping of Sri Lanka R.W.R. Pemasiri.

The Phase II of Hambantota Port has a total project cost of approximately US$ 601 million, to be equipped with 4 container berths (comprising two 100k-dwt berths and two 10k-dwt berths) on a 1,298m-shoreline, and with an annual design capacity of 2 million TEUs.

The parties involved will explore the feasibility of a series of investment projects surrounding the set-up of an international shipping center in Sri Lanka, balancing long-term development goals and near term benefits of Sri Lanka, with preparatory work of two preliminary projects initiating in the near future, including, firstly, the core functional area of the international shipping center with a proposed size of 60 hectares, to offer integrated bonded logistics operations and commercial services, such as bonded warehousing, export processing, entrepot trade, e-commerce distribution and exhibition services; and, secondly, an agglomeration of high-end maritime related services, with a proposed size of 20 hectares, providing a concentration of complimentary facilities and infrastructures supplementary to the international shipping center.(Priu/Kh)

- http://www.news.lk/news/business/it...hase-2-of-hambantota-port-development-project

මහින්දge ZONE හොඳායි

Sri Lanka’s biggest investment zone at Hambantota

Sunday April 24, 2011

By Sunimalee Dias

The southern town of Hambantota, currently seeing most of the development in the country with an airport, sports facility and convention centre and other mega facilities, is set to witness the construction of Sri Lanka’s biggest investment zone at its port site -- the size being almost equal to all investment zones in the country put together.

All the investment zones (12) together in Sri Lanka managed by the Board of Investment total 2,770.69 acres (1121 hectares) while the new investment zone site at Hambantota amounts to 2,717 acres (1100 hectares)

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Chairman Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama confirmed to the Business Times that the government is acquiring additional land amounting to 1100 hectares for scaling up investments in the region.

This is being carried out with the intention of extending the boundaries of the port area. The new zone will be connected with a flyover and located adjacent to the Hambantota port. The current Hambantota port area covers 1,500 hectares (3,705 acres) and within this there is a 140-hectare (345.8 acres) area for investments.

Dr. Wickrama pointed out the need for this expansion is to secure sufficient space to convert it to a logistics centre and for any future requirements. Having studied models in Salalah (Oman), Dubai and Singapore it was observed that these today lacked the necessary space for expansion.

Sri Lanka’s viability is perceived to be more than these ports as the island nation is capable of feeding both the East and West coast of the Indian subcontinent “without any issues,” Dr. Wickrama said.
The SLPA chief also said they received a good response from Dubai and Abu Dhabi during his recent visits that proves high potential for investors entering the country.

Asked to explain about the rock blasting work which has seen a sharp rise in costs at the Hambantota port, Dr. Wickrama said this work is “almost completed”. The government, he said, had been fully aware of the rock that was found on location but did not know the exact volume (size), which has exceeded the estimated figures.

Investors have currently infused a total of US$1 billion into the new Hambantota port to set up industries in the free port or economic zone that is a customs free area. Following this first call for proposals a second Requests for Proposals (RFP) will be carried out by October targeting $1.5 billion; while another RFP will be initiated to build a dockyard at the south port.

The government had bagged 23 qualified RFPs with 13 short-listed following a public advertisement calling for industries to invest in the Hambantota port, Port Chief Engineer Agil Hewageegana told the Business Times.

Negotiations were conducted with 11 companies vying to establish plants at the new port while the other two would be met by the end of the month. SLPA will facilitate organizations or companies intending on obtaining BOI status within the respective zones both within and outside the port.

Industries that would be established are cement grinding plant, cement packaging plant, sugar refinery plant, three petro chemical companies, two vehicle assembly plants and four companies in warehousing from Pakistan, India and Switzerland among others.

The petro chemical companies are to be involved in importing oil for blending and selling while another will be engaged in the import of chemicals for the manufacture of plastic bottles. Transmec and Senok will construct the two vehicle assembly plants, Mr Hewageegana said.

In this respect, two committees namely a Technical Evaluation Committee and the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC) have been established. Following the conduct of negotiations, CANC is set to submit to cabinet the proposals for approval before the end of next month in a bid to commence the signing of agreements and construction work.

Some of the main features of the prospects of setting up industries within the port premises are the water front space availability not found at the Colombo port, Mr Hewageegana said. He pointed out that in this regard, the cement can be pumped directly to the ship from the manufacturing plant situated within the port.

While the industries will be within a customs free area it was possible to export these products without paying customs duty. However, he noted that if these products were sold within the country they would be subject to duties.

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