Sri Lanka PM: ‘We won’t give the ECT to anyone’

COLOMBO:The East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo Port would not be sold or leased out, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

He made the remarks response to a question asked by a journalist in Tangalle.

The premier said, “We don’t have to point the finger at the opposition. We won’t give the ECT to anyone. We won’t sell it or lease it out. It will be under our management. I think the Trade Unions also know this.”

The government is set to offer an 85 percent stake in the West Container Terminal of the Colombo Port to India in order to retain 100 percent ownership of the East Container Terminaj, The Morning reported.

The shareholding has been split this way to allow India to match the shareholding that China has in Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT), where China’s state-owned China Merchant Port Holdings (CMPH) enjoys an 85 percent stake.

While the ECT is already built and developed, the West Container Terminal would need to be developed by India once it acquires it, in much the same way that CICT was developed by CMPH.

The private company that would take over the West Container Terminal is believed to be the Adani Group, which is India’s largest port operator and the entity which has been linked to the ECT deal for months, the morning dot lk reported.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman and Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, when asked about the plan to offer the West terminal instead of the ECT, said that geopolitical realities cannot be avoided by any country, The Morning report added.