Sri Lanka government is to facilitate the setting up of a key regional headquarters of the China Development Bank (CDB) in the locality of the Colombo Port City.
This message was conveyed to the Chairman of the National People’s Congress and Speaker of the parliament of China Li Zhanshu by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa when they participated at a diplomatic meeting conducted via online using zoom facility on Wednesday.
A Chinese high level team headed by Speaker Zhanshu has expressed willingness to go ahead with the proposal of the minister, Finance Ministry sources said.
The CDB has provided $ 300 million recently to rebuild foreign reserves which were depleted in July following the $1 billion International Sovereign Bond payment in July.
Minister Rajapaksa also requested the Speaker of Chinese Parliament to look into expediting the $1.5 billion fiscal transfer between the two Central Banks which is yet to realise due to technicalities of the agreement.
He suggested to the Chinese side to facilitate the expansion of industries such as garments, tea and gems to enter the Chinese market under the Sri Lanka-China Free Trade Agreement.
The CDB is mainly engaged in medium and long-term lending and investment to support the implementation of major strategies for medium and long-term development of China’s national economy.
It is the largest development finance institution in the world and China’s largest bank specialised in medium and long-term lending and bond issuance. It has 37 first-tier branches and four second-tier branches on the Chinese mainland.
CDB also operates a branch in Hong Kong and has opened a total of 10 representative offices in foreign cities - Cairo, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, London, Vientiane, Nur-Sultan (Astana), Minsk, Jakarta, and Sydney.(BS)
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