OBOR will increase SL’s financial connectivity

China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative will not only help develop infrastructure in Sri Lanka but will also increase the country’s financial connectivity and other economic possibilities, a Chinese think-tank said.

Liu Zongyi, a Senior Fellow of the Shanghai Institutes For International Studies (SIIS), which is a government-affiliated high-caliber think tank, said this upon meeting a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists in the city on Thursday.

He said apart from the hard infrastructure such as building of ports, highways and economic zones, the initiative would increase Sri Lanka’s financial connectivity and other economic possibilities.

He also said China’s investment in Sri Lanka stimulates other countries also to invest in the country.

“China and Sri Lanka has sound cooperation. We share a very good traditional friendship. We have capital, capability to help Sri Lanka. I think on the other hand, the demand comes from Sri Lanka to develop it. After years of civil war the country needs infrastructure building and economic development,” he said.

Meanwhile, the President of the SIIS, Chen Dongxiao said he would lead a team of experts from China to Sri Lanka in autumn to have a discussion with their counterparts in Sri Lanka at the joint research centre of the two countries.

One centre of the joint research centre, which was established recently, is situated in China while the other is in Sri Lanka. (By Lahiru Pothmulla in Shanghai)