Port City Project Will it generate confidence amongst investors?

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. Yet, the benefits of FDI do not accrue automatically and evenly across countries, sectors and local communities.

National policies and the international investment architecture matter for attracting FDI to a larger number of developing countries and for reaping the full benefits of FDI for development. The challenges primarily address host countries, which need to establish a transparent, broad and effective enabling policy environment for investment and to build the human and institutional capacities to implement them OECD, Foreign Direct Investment for Development MAXIMISING BENEFITS, MINIMISING COSTSby Raj GonsalkoraleSri Lankan politics has not witnessed bi-partisan agreement amongst the major political parties on key issues that impact on the people of the country, the present generations and many more to come.

There has never been bi partisan agreement on foreign policy, on education, on health at least at the highest policy levels. Personality politics has dominated the political landscape and it has always been about the plaudits or damage a policy decision might make on a personality and as a consequence on the party or parties that person represents, and eventually whether or not that individual or the party would win the next election, and ones after that.

This absence of bi partisan agreement has now extended to one of Sri Lanka's most daring, controversial to many and an out of the box venture, the Port City project. The absence of such agreement, and the statements made by the current Opposition that they will amend the Port Commission bill is bound to unsettle many would be investors.

They will be wondering what would happen to their investments if the current regime is defeated at the next election and the terms and conditions in which they invested should change after 4 years or so. The investment period horizon would then be 4 years.

It does not need an Einstein to conclude that investors would be very hesitant to invest in any long term project in such a climate.The statement of the Opposition is not being questioned here as they have rightly said that although the constitutionality of the bill has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court, amendments made, but the policy contentions had not been addressed and amendments they had brought in had been rejected by the government.

It is also not clear whether the amended bill, incorporated with the supreme court determined amendments, had been presented to the Parliament. The public certainly has not seen the amended bill.

The bona fides of the current Opposition of course is questionable, as they were the government in 2016 when they signed a tripartite agreement with the China Harbour Engineering Company and the UDA to develop the Port City into what they termed the "Colombo International Financial City, which will be in the centre of the maritime city, will be one of the key phenomenon which will decide the future development of Sri Lanka" according to the then Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka at the signing of the tri partite agreement. He added that the project would also fuel the planned Maritime city, Aero city, Tech city, Industrial cities and Tourist cities.

That agreement has not been made public to the best of the writer's knowledge.The Port City project and the Port City Commission are major undertakings that will bind many future generations to its positives, but more importantly to any possible negatives as well.

It would not be out of place to say that the politics associated with this futuristic project could have been handled better in a more transparent and consultative manner.In the first place, the origin of this project, the agreement...