Port City Colombo to become “new engine” driving Sri Lanka’s economic and social development

The “Cloud Open Day” for the Port City Colombo project, a key project in the Belt and Road Initiative, was launched on July 30 in Sri Lanka.

Indeewari Amuwatte, a well-known Sri Lankan hostess, led the audience on an online walk into the "City of the Future" by the Indian Ocean, showing the project’s construction and development from multiple angles.

A full view of the Port City Colombo project constructed by China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) in Sri Lanka (Photo/CCCC)

According to Kassapa, who is in charge of public relations on the project, the first phase of Colombo Port City saw an investment of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars and resulted in more than 13 billion U.S. dollars in secondary development. It is the largest foreign direct investment project in Sri Lanka's history and will create more than 83,000 job opportunities for the local area.

The Sri Lankan government has defined Colombo Port City as an economic hub and commercial center. It will focus on building an international financial center, implementing various preferential policies, attracting investment from different countries, and creating a “new engine” to promote Sri Lanka’s economic and social development.

According to local employees, the Sri Lankan government approved the resumption of work early in May, and there are currently 530 workers on the project site working in strict compliance with the government's epidemic prevention regulations. The project has specially built a "mobile cabin" buffer zone to quarantine local employees returning to work and provides them two free nucleic acid tests. There are currently zero infections among project personnel.

A Cloud Open Day themed “Port City Colombo—a World-class City of the Future” is held by CCCC on July 30 (Photo/CCCC)

269 hectares of land reclamation has been completed for the project, and according to current plans, the urban scale in the future will exceed 5.7 million square meters, integrating commercial, residential, leisure and entertainment functions. More than 200,000 people will work and live in this area, which will become the new Central Business District (CBD) of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.

Colombo Port City is a large-scale urban development project invested, constructed and operated by China Harbour Engineering Company, a subsidiary of China Communications Group.

An important achievement in Sri Lanka’s “Vision 2030”, the Colombo Port City project has not only implemented the “Fishermen’s Livelihood Improvement Program”, “Ran Bhumi Rally for Unity” campaign, "The Colombo Beautiful Beach Project" and other public welfare activities, but also actively offered medical protection supplies to the general public in Sri Lanka. In 2018, Forbes magazine listed the Port City of Colombo as one of the "Five New Cities to Shake Up the Future".