In comparison with other countries, Sri Lanka had received fewer benefits from the Belt and Road Initiative, with investments amounting to 14 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) affiliated Asia Progress Forum (APF) said.

The investments made by this Initiative in Laos and Cambodia are 140 percent and 60 percent, respectively of their GDPs, the APF said.

“This makes it clear that our country, which has over 2,000 years of relations with China, has benefitted very little from this Initiative. Moreover, the management of what we have already received has been sluggish and subject to discriminatory treatment, the APF said. The activities of the Colombo Port City may be cited as an example.”

Given below are excerpts of the APF statement: “Sri Lanka has received a low level of investment, as detailed above, because of its unstable policy situation and the anti-Chinese environment which has been created by Western vested interests. Fictional narratives such as “Chinese colony” and “Chinese debt-trap” have been publicised to the very highest level in our country. Fake narratives, such as “the Belt and Road Initiative strengthens autocracies,” have also been spread.

What is the autocracy which has been created by this Initiative in our country? Aren’t the United States and its allied Western countries the ones which interfere in our internal politics? Only about 10 percent of the foreign loans received by Sri Lanka have come from China. Yet over 42 percent are represented by short-term International Sovereign Bonds, for which high-interest loans have come from the capital markets of the West, including (prominently) the USA. Some 16 percent has been obtained by loans from multi-lateral institutions such as the World Bank.

“From this perspective, the loans received from the West total 58 percent. With the loan taken from the Paris Club, this figure exceeds 70 percent. This does not include loans from India. Nevertheless, the fictional “China debt-trap” narrative is what has been pushed in Sri Lanka.

“If not for the fake information and the wrong impression they create, we could have obtained considerable benefits from the Belt and Road Initiative, conditional on a stable policy framework. Chinese President Xi Jinping has clarified eight major steps for the future of the Belt and Road Initiative, from which we can get an idea of ways that Sri Lanka could benefit. In future this initiative will be multi-dimensional, encompassing land, sea and air.

“In the next five years, China will aid the openness of the world economy with $37 trillion in trade. In addition to large-scale projects such as those that were carried out hitherto, “small, but smart” livelihood programmes will also be promoted. This initiative will enhance green development and scientific and technological innovations. China will support the development of people-to-people connectivity and civilisational interaction. China is carrying out Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, based upon interconnectedness, as well as establishing institutions for international cooperation.

“We can expect Sri Lanka to receive benefits from the Belt and Road Initiative by basing itself on the above policy framework. Under this, we can expect a wide variety of activities, including establishing an Ocean University and vocational and technological educational institutes, village development, entering the Chinese market, and developing health, sports and recreation, media and communications, literature and arts, religious relations, care for the elderly and people-to-people connectivity.

The world order, which developed in a bipolar mode after the Second World War and in a unipolar mode after the fall of the Soviet Union, is being transformed to a multi-polar character by the Belt and Road Initiative. Western imperialism is weakening within this new international alignment, founded on the different world zones. Unable to tolerate these changes, the Western camp is promoting fictional narratives and relentless criticism of the Belt and Road Initiative. Having suffered under Western Imperialism for over 500 years, we should not be deceived by this propaganda. Basing ourselves on our own sovereignty, we should maximise the benefits we can receive from the Belt and Road Initiative.”