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August 4th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
A $US500 million ($A562.65 million) Chinese-built port opens this week in Sri Lanka, giving Beijing a vital foothold on the world’s busiest international shipping lane as it seeks to secure maritime supply routes.
The massive terminal in Colombo is located mid-way on the lucrative east-west sea route and has facilities on a par with Singapore and Dubai.
The Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), which is 85 per cent owned by the state-run China Merchant Holdings International, is designed to handle mega ships – a first for Sri Lanka which is aiming to become the region’s shipping hub.
The involvement of such a large Chinese company appears to conform to a pattern by Beijing after it sealed a deal in January to acquire the Pakistani port of Gwadar at a time when it is also building a $US14 million “dry port” in the Nepalese city of Larcha, near Tibet.
Chinese loans and expertise were also instrumental in the construction of a new $US450 million deep-sea port at the southern Sri Lankan city of Hambantota which opened in June 2012.
Independent shipping expert, Rohan Masakorala, says the new terminal made economic sense for China to tap in to the growing South Asian container cargo and gave Beijing a foothold along a strategic sea route.
“Terminal investments are a good business which can give a very good return,” said Masakorala, a former secretary-general of the Singapore-based Asian Shippers Council.
“Through this investment, China is also securing the safety and efficiency of their main supply chain.”
Masakorala, who heads the Shippers’ Academy Colombo, said about half of all world sea trade passed through the east-west shipping route and a presence at a mid-way point along that gives China a commanding position.
The Chinese investment in Sri Lanka, which is under pressure from Western powers and India over its human rights record, has raised fears in New Delhi about Beijing’s influence in the neighbourhood.
But Priyath Bandu Wickrama, chairman of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), insisted that India had nothing to fear from the new Colombo port and could in fact be a major beneficiary.
“We will not allow any military base at our ports nor will we allow them to be used for any strategic military purpose by anyone,” Wickrama said.
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