COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will hand over commercial activities in its main southern port to a Chinese company on Saturday and receive around $300 million out of a $1.1 billion deal soon after, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

The deal, signed in July, will see China Merchants Port Holdings, handling the Chinese-built Hambantota port on a 99-year lease.

“After one month, we will be getting another 10 per cent ($100 million) and in six months we will get the balance,” Samarasinghe told reporters in Colombo.

The Chinese firm last year agreed to pay $1.12 billion for an 80 per cent stake in Hambantota port, which is located near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.

But the deal triggered protests by opposition groups and trade unions, saying they feared China would take control of the port.

Government and diplomatic sources told Reuters that the United States, India and Japan had also raised concerns that China might use the port as a naval base.

Both sides then agreed to redraw the deal and the Chinese firm will now hold 70-per cent-stake in a joint venture with the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), part of a plan to convert $6 billion of loans that Sri Lanka owes China into equity.

Sri Lanka has said the Chinese firm will invest an additional $600 million to make Hambantota port operational and $1.12 billion from the deal will be used for debt repayment.

India is in advanced talks with Sri Lanka to operate an airport near Hambantota port.

Sri Lanka and China will jointly conduct “the First Chinese Enterprise Job Fair in Sri Lanka,” organised by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training, an official said here.

Gao Bin, Director of Teaching Affairs from the China, Sri Lanka Vocational Training Center, told Xinhua that 15 Chinese companies, who had opened branches in Sri Lanka would provide job opportunities to over 400 Sri Lankans in an aim to strengthen the country’s employment sector.

Gao said that the Job Fair would be held in Colombo on Friday, where representatives from the Ministry of Vocational Training, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka and representatives from the 15 Chinese companies would interview locals who sought employment in these Chinese companies.

The companies were in search of both skilled and unskilled workers and there were many job categories available, Gao said.

Reuters