පෝර්ට් සිටි මරීනා කලාපයේ ඉදිකිරීම් කටයුතු ඇරඹේ

Ground broken for marina development project at Port City Colombo

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Friday (Jan. 10) to kick off the project of marina development at Port City Colombo in the Sri Lankan capital city, marking the entry into a new phase of the construction of the port city with Chinese aid.

Qi Zhenhong, Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, and Vijitha Herath, Sri Lanka's Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the ceremony.

The Port City Colombo project, located near Colombo's central business district, is a large-scale investment initiative jointly developed by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and the Sri Lankan government. It is considered a model of cooperation between China and Sri Lanka within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Once completed, it is set to become a special economic zone combining finance, tourism, logistics and information technology.

As a key part of the project, the luxury marina development, covering a total land area of 33,776 square meters, will feature state-of-the-art facilities, including sunset bars, seaside restaurants, retail outlets, and entertainment spaces, offering a vibrant and upscale environment for visitors.

The development will also offer berthing space for up to 200 mid-to-large-sized vessels, filling a critical infrastructure gap in the region.

"Our first goal is to initiate the construction of a series of service projects, including marina apartment buildings, an international financial center, an international hospital and a school, on the basis of starting the construction of marina commercial projects. The second goal is to attract at least 300 international companies, including Chinese enterprises, to start up their business in Port City Colombo, leveraging its favorable policies," said Xiong Hongfeng, general manager of CHEC Port City Colombo (Private) Limited.

"The contribution to the GDP or to the national economy, once the whole project is fully operational, is estimated to be between 13 to 15 billion U.S. dollars annually. So that's a very very significant sum of money in the context of the Sri Lankan economy and what we want to take forward as the Sri Lanka economy as a whole," said Harsha Amarasekera, chairman of Colombo Port City Economic Commission.

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