Responding to concerns raised by the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, CHEC Port City Colombo has decried her statement as “misleading” and maintained that neither itself nor its parent company China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) are listed under United States sanctions.
In her statement, Teplitz had claimed that sanctions were imposed on one of the companies involved in the Port City project however this is vigorously denied by the company which maintains that the subsidiaries which were included in the said US sanctions were a few companies involved in South China Sea reclamation work.
“The land reclamation work of Port City Colombo conducted by CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd is an entirely different subsidiary of CCCC”, the company stated.
Concerns over investment
In her statement, Teplitz had raised broader concerns over the legislation governing the Port City project noting that “there appears to be openings for either corrupt influences or potential of illicit financing, money laundering and things like that. US companies are going to be wary of that”.
This follows a scathing report by the US State Department which highlights concerns for investors in Sri Lanka and notes that the country’s import regimes is “one of the most protectionist in the world”.
The legislation has been widely criticised across Sri Lanka, with the bill passing on the 20 May with 149 MPs voting in favour and 58 voting against the measure.
Ceylon Federation of Labour has also raised concerns over provisions that would exempt employers operating within the Port City from compliance with Sri Lanka’s labour laws. The Hindu notes that the Union had fought and won a case in the late 1970s when the J.R. Jayawardene government tried to deny labour law protection to workers at the newly established Free Trade Zone.
General Secretary of the Federation, T.M.R. Raseedin, has warned that with the passage of the bill, “we will be going back to an era when ‘hire and fire’ ruled employer-employee relationships.”
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