ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka is in the process of establishing its most attractive logistic hub targeting heavy industries with an aim to attract up to 1.5 billion dollars investment, State Minister of Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama said.
The 600-acre investment zone in Trincomalee’s Kappalthurai will connect sea, air, and railway cargo freights, and it will be the second such hub after the Hambantota investment zone near a Chinese-built port.
“Kappalthurai is being developed as a new zone in 600 acres connecting to the port,” Amunugama told reporters in Colombo on Thursday (21).
“It will be a logistics hub and it will be only for heavy industries. That will be an industrial park. We are thinking that this will be the most attractive zone where we can have sea, air, and rail cargo transportation from Trincomalee.”
“We expect an investment of 1-1.5 billion dollars.”
Last year, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed developing an energy hub in the Trincomalee District.
India has been eyeing Trincomalee port since late 1970s and Indian leaders were critical of former Sri Lankan president J R Jayawardena, an uncle of Wickremesinghe, for his moves seen as giving the strategic port for a US military base during that era.
Trincomalee is one of the mineral resource richest districts in Sri Lanka. A best-known mineral sand deposit is in the northern part of Trincomalee.
The major minerals found in this deposit are Ilmenite and Rutile. Other associated minerals are Zircon, Monazite, Garnet, Sillimanite, and a few other heavy minerals, Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board data show.
Many Indian projects have been moving at a slower pace amid geopolitical worries of increasing Chinese-funded infrastructure projects and investment into Sri Lanka.
Amunugama told EconomyNext that the government will treat all investors equally and it does not want any geopolitical conflicts in the upcoming investment zone in Trincomalee. (Colombo/August 22/2024)