Max The Boss
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The Hambantota Development Zone, which the China will help build, will include a Container port, a bunkering system, an oil refinery, an airport and other facilities. It is expected to cost about US$1 billion and the China are said to be financing more than 85% of the project.
Construction on the first phase of the project is begun and is due to be completed in three years. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in the next 10 years.
Sri Lanka China Cooperation on the port project in Hambantota, 240 kilometers
South of the Sri Lanka capital, Colombo, into a major transshipment hub. Hambantota Infrastructure will help service hundreds of ships that ply the waters to the south of
Sri Lanka.
China's massive involvement in the Hambantota project - it has provided most of its funding and technical expertise - has provided Beijing with a "listening post" from where it can "monitor naval activity in the Indian Ocean, and future maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean", Zia Haider, an analyst at the Washington-based Stimson Center, has noted
The Hambantota port project is the latest in a series of steps that China has taken in recent years to consolidate its access to the Indian Ocean and to secure sea lanes through which its energy supplies are transported. It has adopted what analysts describe as a "string of pearls" strategy, building strategic relationships with countries along sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea.
Other "pearls" that China has been developing are Deep sea port and a Special
Economic zone at Gwadar, Pakistan. Developing naval facilities in
Bangladesh, developing a container port facility at Myanmar.
The Significance of Hambantota to China lies with presence midway in the
Indian Ocean.
The Indian Ocean is a critical waterway for global trade and commerce. Half the world's containerized freight, a third of its bulk cargo and two-thirds of its oil shipments travel through the Indian Ocean. It provides major sea routes connecting Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia with Europe and chokepoints such as the
Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca.
Construction on the first phase of the project is begun and is due to be completed in three years. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in the next 10 years.
Sri Lanka China Cooperation on the port project in Hambantota, 240 kilometers
South of the Sri Lanka capital, Colombo, into a major transshipment hub. Hambantota Infrastructure will help service hundreds of ships that ply the waters to the south of
Sri Lanka.
China's massive involvement in the Hambantota project - it has provided most of its funding and technical expertise - has provided Beijing with a "listening post" from where it can "monitor naval activity in the Indian Ocean, and future maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean", Zia Haider, an analyst at the Washington-based Stimson Center, has noted
The Hambantota port project is the latest in a series of steps that China has taken in recent years to consolidate its access to the Indian Ocean and to secure sea lanes through which its energy supplies are transported. It has adopted what analysts describe as a "string of pearls" strategy, building strategic relationships with countries along sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea.
Other "pearls" that China has been developing are Deep sea port and a Special
Economic zone at Gwadar, Pakistan. Developing naval facilities in
Bangladesh, developing a container port facility at Myanmar.
The Significance of Hambantota to China lies with presence midway in the
Indian Ocean.
The Indian Ocean is a critical waterway for global trade and commerce. Half the world's containerized freight, a third of its bulk cargo and two-thirds of its oil shipments travel through the Indian Ocean. It provides major sea routes connecting Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia with Europe and chokepoints such as the
Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca.
