New Delhi: Sri Lanka, which is now focussed on stabilising and reviving its crashed economy, is seeking massive investments in power generation even as it considers the capital put in by the Adani Group in the island nation “important”, Colombo’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda said Tuesday.
After a massive turmoil that forced a change of regime in Sri Lanka, the Indian Ocean island nation is now focusing on reviving its collapsed economy even as it seeks India’s support and is banking on investments made by the Adani Group there.
“We are now trying to stabilise the economy…We are in the process of restructuring our debt. And, hopefully by the end of this year, we can enter the international system with the support of the IMF (International Monetary Fund),” Moragoda said at a media conference.
Lanka Seeking Investments In Power Generation
The Adani Group is engaged in some strategically important projects in that country amounting to about $1 billion. This includes building the West Container Terminal at the Colombo Port that became a centre of controversy in 2020.
In February this year, the Adani Group got the approval to build two wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn in northern Sri Lanka.
“The West terminal is very much on time and on course…That is very important investment to us and at a time like this it gives us confidence in Sri Lanka that somebody is willing to invest like that,” Moragoda said while addressing the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia.
He said both sides will soon be signing the power purchase agreement for the 500-MW wind power projects
On the 500-MW wind power projects, the envoy said, negotiations are on and the power purchase agreement is being finalised. “So that is also moving ahead,” he said.
“We are hoping very soon to sign an MoU with India on cable connection between India and Sri Lanka for power. We understand that off the northwest coast of Sri Lanka, there is nearly 30,000 MW of wind energy available,” added Moragoda.
He stated that the total generation capacity of wind energy in Sri Lanka is 4300 MW.
“So, if we can get investment going off the northwest coast of Sri Lanka, hopefully we can look after our needs and also look at exports in the future to India,” he added.
The High Commissioner stressed, “Broadening our revenue lines for Sri Lanka is one of our key priorities and export of electricity could be one area like that.”
On March 20, the IMF Executive Board approved a 48-month Extended Fund Facility of about $3 billion to support Sri Lanka’s economic policies and reforms.
The High Commissioner said the Wickremesinghe government is now focussed on stabilising and reviving the Sri Lankan economy that underwent a massive meltdown last year following a spate of public protests.
In terms of revenue generation, the envoy explained that 80 per cent of the business done by the Port of Colombo is transhipment, the remaining 20 per cent goes to Sri Lanka. Out of the 80 per cent of business, 70 per cent comes to India.
“We are linked to the Indian port network … There is an Indian investor who is actually willing to put money in and sees a business potential (in Sri Lanka) … We are looking at the investment. Adani has invested in Israel’s Haifa port as well so he is one of the most established international port operators. So I will not look into the politics of it,” he said.
He said Sri Lanka is also looking at creating an oil pipeline from Colombo till India.
Time To ‘Think Afresh’ On 13th Amendment Issue
On India’s long-standing demand of implementing the 13th Amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution on the Tamil reconciliation issue, he said, it is time to “think afresh.”
“On the 13th Amendment and the ethnic issue, I think we have to think afresh. The crisis is an opportunity and President (Ranil) Wickremesinghe is trying to do that. This is the time for all communities to talk to each other and to try to come up with some kind of a solution that will be lasting. We have to think afresh,” he said affing that the younger generation has to be also included now in the process.
The former Gotabaya Rajapaksa-government made matters worse and several Sri Lankan MPs representing the Tamil and Muslim parties from the northern and eastern provinces of that country wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021 to intervene and ask the Sri Lankan government to implement the amendment.
The 13th Amendment became part of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka as a direct result of Indian intervention in 1987, under the ‘India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord’. It led to the creation of ‘Provincial Councils’.
The main aim of the ‘India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord’ was to find a way to devolve political powers to the then northern and eastern provinces that comprised Tamil-dominated areas of the country. Hence, the 13th Amendment was introduced.