Sri Lanka's Volkswagen project temporarily been halted

The government’s-once pet project, the setting up of a Volkswagen plant in Kurunegala, has been suspended, a government deputy minister has said.           
The proposed project has temporarily been halted, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Development Eran Wickramaratne has said in an interview with Ada Derana TV. 
The Volkswagen plan was one of Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva’s pet project’s when he was deputy minister handling Policy Planning and Economic Affairs last year. It was the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka which comes under the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade that signed the agreement with M/s Senok Automobile (Pvt) Ltd and Volkswagen AG to set up in Kuliyapitiya an assembly plant for Volkswagen Automobiles. It was signed by Upul Jayasuriya Chairman of BOI and Noel Selvanayagam, President of Senok Automobile (Pvt) Ltd. Business analysts said they were expecting a confirmation of this postponement from Minister Malik Samarawickrema’s ministry which is responsible for the project.
Mr. Wickramaratne is quoted as saying that the project has been temporarily halted due to several issues that the company had to face “in international level.”
Volkswagen has been facing several problems over an ‘emissions cheating scandal’.
According to international news media reports, the Germany company has negotiated a “broad settlement agreement, expected to exceed $10 billion, involving Volkswagen, the federal government and a half-million car owners. 
“… the civil settlement is set to be the largest in automotive history, dwarfing the $1.4 billion that Toyota paid to settle a class-action lawsuit over flawed accelerators and the more than $2 billion General Motors has paid so far to settle claims from owners of cars with faulty ignition switches. Toyota, in addition, paid $1.2 billion to settle criminal charges, while G.M. paid $900 million,” a New York Times report said in June 2016. – ENDS -