Southern Expressway, Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre and Hambantota Port Development Program
Friday, February 03, 2012
Sri Lanka has spent an astounding Rs. 391.7 billion on investment projects in the country in the last four years. This enormous amount of money has been spread over five projects, of which only two have been completed but are still to serve any real purpose.
All of these projects have been undertaken by Chinese firms, and have been funded by loans obtained from the Chinese state-owned Export-Import bank. Many of these loans have been taken with interest rates for long term borrowing (20 years) varying from 3% to 6%, and short term loans at an interest of 2%.
All of these projects have been undertaken by Chinese firms, and have been funded by loans obtained from the Chinese state-owned Export-Import bank. Many of these loans have been taken with interest rates for long term borrowing (20 years) varying from 3% to 6%, and short term loans at an interest of 2%.
According to highly placed sources in the Finance Ministry, however, loans from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for short term loans would have varied between 0.25% and 2%, while the interest rates for the long term loans are the same. It is believed that these loans would have come with stricter guidelines than what is being currently enforced by the Chinese. Read More »
