Chinese President Xi Jinping met recently elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Beijing on Wednesday and China and Sri Lanka agreed to increase investment and economic cooperation.
The countries signed 15 cooperation documents, including agreements on economic and technological development and alignment of China’s ‘One Belt and Road Initiative’ with Sri Lanka’s 2030 Digital Economy Plan.
The specifics of the agreements were not disclosed at the signing ceremony.
After his first visit to regional rival India, Mr. Dissanayake visits his country’s biggest bilateral creditor.
Mr Dissanayake won a large majority in elections in September, promising to change the terms of an international financial rescue package and his left-wing coalition’s plans to fight poverty and corruption.
Under the previous Rajapaksa government, Sri Lanka was moving closer to China, relying heavily on Chinese loans to build highways, a port, an airport and a coal plant as part of Mr Xi’s flagship transcontinental belt and road infrastructure initiative.
It secured an initial $10 billion bilateral debt restructuring deal with major lenders including China, Japan and India last June and a $12.5 billion bond deal in December.
The deal should involve direct agreements with the China EXIM Bank and the China Development Bank to demonstrate progress in the IMF’s foreign debt restructuring to secure further payments from the $2.9 billion IMF guarantee program.
“Mr. President, I am willing to work with you to develop a new vision for the development of bilateral relations and to promote new and greater achievements of China-Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation,” Xi told Dissanayake at Janata Maha Hall on Wednesday.
Welcoming more Chinese investment, Dissanayake told his host: “China has been a key development partner in Sri Lanka through the Belt and Road Initiative, which supports the development of important and valuable infrastructure.”
But during a visit to Delhi in December, Dissanayake struck a wide range of energy and defense cooperation agreements with other regional superpowers, signaling his new government’s desire to be less dependent on Beijing.
Although Sri Lanka’s economy has begun to recover temporarily, the high cost of living is still a critical problem for many, especially the poor.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, could benefit economically by buying more Sri Lankan goods, which buy more tea, clothing, chemicals and other goods, and by encouraging more Chinese tourists to consider vacationing there, UN COMTRADE said. Data shows. can help
“There is a need to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and develop new people-to-people ties between the two sides,” China’s state broadcaster said. Mr. Xi told Mr. Dissanayake.
