Transshipment business will collapse

If SL fails to join Indian conglomerate's offer to develop ECT

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

If Sri Lanka fails to join the Indian conglomerate, Adani Group of Companies to develop the East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Port of Colombo (PoC), there is a strong possibility of India pulling out from the trans shipment business from the PoC and thereby the ECT missing its main target of developing and upgrading it, Money, Capital Market and State Enterprises Reforms Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal said yesterday.

He added that the main partner at the PoC trans shipment business is India and as such, there is no purpose of developing the ECT while antagonizing India, as 80% of the trans shipment through the ETC goes to India.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror at the news briefing held last morning at the ‘Water's Edge’, Battaramulla, he asked why should the government invite foreign investors either from India, Japan or from any other country to invest in the ECT development project, Minister Cabraal said the main issue of the development and upgrading of the ECT was not the investment but the businesses to be undertaken at the ECT.

“The debate on the investment and development of the ECT is good. It is a sign of a robust democracy.