No Japanese donations for Central Expressway Phase 3 - Japanese Ambassador

Colombo (News 1st) - The Japanese ambassador to Sri Lanka H.E Akira Sugiyama visited the Mahanayaka theros in Kandy today. Following the meeting, he spoke with the media on the Central Expressway project.

When asked how much money was donated by Japan for Phase 3 of the Central Expressway, the ambassador explained that phase 3 has not received any donation from the Japanese Government. He noted that this was a private oriented project, where Japanese companies participated in a tender process and got the opportunity to build one phase. The ambassador noted that even though this has no Government involvement, the Japanese Government is keeping a close watch on the development work. Team News1st reported on the departure of due process with regard to Phase 3 of the Central Expressway. It was pointed out that a loan totalling 1 billion USD or 1850 Billion rupees was being negotiated with a Japanese commercial bank. We also pointed out that since this was not a Government to Government project, without any form of soft funding, it was necessary to adhere to national procurement guidelines. The minister in charge of highways at that time sought to downplay the real nature of the funding and attempted to portray this as a project being funded by the Japanese govt. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe maintained a similar stance. Team News1st  notes that finally, the representative of the Government of Japan in Sri Lanka himself has confirmed that this is a straight forward commercial loan.