PM makes statement to Parliament on Port City project

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a statement told Parliament today that his government wants to further consolidate relations with China.

We will not let the goodwill and friendship between our counties to be jeopardized due to acts of corruption he said this while making a statement in parliament on the controversial port city project.

He said that it seems there are serious suspicions regards this transaction.

It became clear that the previous government had hidden form this House all the facts and reports pertaining to the Colombo Port City project.

Due to this I set up a special committee to look into the port City project. This chairman of this committee is Ajith De Costa, The other members are Professor Ruchira Kumaratunga, Dr N G Wijayananda, Dr Anil Premaratne, Dr Samantha Hettiaratchchi, Channa Fernando , A.S.Obeysekera and . Ms. Sunila Jayawardena.

I have also appointed a cabinet subcommittee headed by  me to study the report of these experts and to take the necessary decisions.

This committee as well as the subcommittee will wills study the port city project in depth as well as with a great care. All angles will be looked at into with great detail. In addition to that the representations made by the public will also be looked into. Several environment groups have expressed c concerns about this project. We will look onto all these.

As Cabinet Spokesman Dr Rajitha Senaratne once said we have not yet taken a decision to terminate this project. We would inspect all aspects related to this agreement. We would take necessary action if there are any malpractices, illegal transactions, corruptions or anything against the national interests.

We would make a final decision on the basis of the report of the experts and the findings of investigations and inform this assembly of our decision. This problem turned worse and evolved to the level of a crisis because this House had not been properly informed of all aspects pertaining to the project.

The President and I discussed this issue with a delegation from China. We informed that we would not pardon anyone weather they are politicians, officials, public institutions, corporations if they are involved in any corruption, fraud connected to this project.

I would like to wind up my response with a quote from Chinese President Xi Jinping. “We will make sure that the Party’s conduct continues to be improved, that the ills of formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance are properly dealt with, and that new progress is made in promoting Party conduct, political integrity, the people’s morality and social ethics. We will further strengthen the efforts to punish corruption, and let disciplines and the law function effectively to guard against corruption. We will consolidate our work of corruption prevention, and see to it that Party members and officials perform better in upholding integrity, practicing self-discipline and warding off degeneration and corruption.

(CK)