"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
Last updated: 04 November, 2011 – Published 17:14 GMT
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Colombo
A hotel project by CATIC near Galle Face Green has recently been cancelled
Sri Lanka has awarded a business contract to a Chinese state-owned defence contractor, just days after a hotel deal with the same company collapsed.
The deal came as reports said the company, China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation or CATIC, might have been planning to sue the Sri Lankan government.
The Chinese state-owned CATIC is an exporter of military planes to Sri Lanka but also has other interests.
It is now secured a 90 million-dollar contract to relocate and develop a university department near the capital.
The cabinet approved the deal just nine days after the government withdrew a contract for the same company to build a luxury city hotel complex worth 500 million dollars on prime seafront land.
Hotel project
It hurriedly rescinded an agreement to sell the land outright, saying that in fact only leases were acceptable – despite an adjacent land sale to the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La hotel group having gone through.
The government now appears anxious to placate the Chinese conglomerate at a time when Chinese loans are funding many big building projects here including roads, railways, a port and an airport.
The main opposition party campaigned hard against the sale of the seafront land, and alleges that someone must be benefiting from the deals with Chinese firms.
The government accuses the opposition of discouraging investment.
But the Sri Lanka-based Sunday Times newspaper has accused the government of making business decisions “without any rational thought”, saying that as a result, no one is rushing to invest in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, government supporters have stormed and occupied the sugar factory in Sevanagala which is owned by an opposition politician but which the government has vowed to nationalise under a controversial new bill.
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Global Peace Support Group UK Ltd is a registered organisation based in London. The organisation dedicated to be involved in humanitarian and other related issues. We also work along with other similar organisations to promote peace and harmony among various societies..
GLOBAL PEACE SUPPORT GROUP - UK - TIRELESSLY WORK ON THE CONCEPT OF:
"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
MOURNS ON THE CONTINUED TRAGEDY OF THE PEOPLE OF North & East of Tamil EELAM WITH THE HOPE OF ALL OF OUR ENDEAVOURS WOULD BRING AN END TO THOSE SUFFERING DURING THE YEAR AHEAD.
The International community has a duty towards the long suffering Sri Lankan Tamil population to restore their rights of SELF DETERMINATION.
Global Peace Support Group - believes that this is the ONLY way for a permanent PEACE in Sri Lanka.
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