Vision that gives hope to many developing nations
Print Edition
The remarkable vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by President Xi Jinping means sharing the prosperity among countries and peoples — a message that gives a new hope to many developing countries, said Sri Lankan Ambassador to China, Karunasena Kodituwakku.
“We admire it, we must support it, and we must cooperate with it,” he said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.
“If you look at the history of the past two to three centuries the imperial powers of the West exploited occupied countries, whatever they could gain from those countries were used only to improve the living conditions of their own people.
“But the contrast in China’s Belt and Road initiative is that it is a shared future. China is interested not only in the Chinese economy and its people but also the other economies and peoples of those countries.”
He added the initiative helps to translate Xi’s broad vision into practice by providing opportunities in investment, technology transfer and access to the global market.
“No other global power was prepared to come forward to provide such opportunities in this magnitude. Under the Belt and Road initiative, President Xi Jinping has come forward to do that,” he said.
“Now China has become the most important development partner for us in investment, foreign trade, and tourism and even in the field of technology transfer.”
The ambassador added that China has been creating two key development hubs in Sri Lanka under the Belt and Road initiative, one in Colombo, the other in Hambantota.
The Colombo project will elevate the port city into an international service hub not only for Sri Lanka, but also for South Asia, mainly focusing as an international financial city such as Hong Kong or Dubai.
With China’s participation in building the industrial hub at Hambantota Port, Sri Lanka will become an important logistic platform for South Asia, Southeast Asia and even to serve East Africa and Middle East.
The ambassador also mentioned the free-trade agreement currently under negotiation between Sri Lanka and China.
“By signing a free-trade agreement, we hope that we will be able to have continuously sustainable trade between the two countries,” he said.
In addition, the ambassador said he is delighted to see Sri Lanka growing increasingly popular among Chinese tourists, pointing out that Sri Lanka can provide good beaches, wildlife, cultural tourism, shopping and leisure, meditation and spas for overseas tourists.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
