By Liz Lee
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Sri Lanka have agreed on more investment and economic cooperation, after China’s President Xi Jinping met recently elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Beijing on Wednesday.
The countries signed a total of 15 cooperation documents, including agreements to cooperate on economic and technological development and aligning China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ with Sri Lanka’s 2030 digital economy blueprint.
Specifics of the deals were not disclosed at the signing ceremony.
Dissanayake’s visit to his country’s largest bilateral lender comes after having first travelled to regional rival India.
Colombo secured a preliminary $10 billion bilateral debt deal rework with key lenders including China, Japan and India last June and a $12.5 billion bondholder deal in December.
However, it needs direct agreements with China EXIM Bank and China Development Bank to lock in the deal to continue demonstrating progress to the International Monetary Fund in restructuring its foreign debt to secure further disbursements from a $2.9 billion IMF bailout programme.
“I am willing to work with you, Mr President, to chart a new vision for the development of bilateral relations and promote new and greater achievements in China-Sri Lanka’s friendship and cooperation,” Xi told Dissanayake on Wednesday, speaking at the Great Hall of the People.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Joe Cash in Beijing, Additional reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe in Colombo; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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