{"id":22862,"date":"2019-03-22T18:56:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T18:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/22\/when-a-string-of-pearls-becomes-a-noose\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:05:08","slug":"when-a-string-of-pearls-becomes-a-noose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/22\/when-a-string-of-pearls-becomes-a-noose\/","title":{"rendered":"When a string of pearls becomes a noose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka \u2014 China has agreed to provide a loan of $989 million to Sri Lanka <\/a>to build an expressway that will connect the island nation\u2019s tea-growing central region to a China-run seaport on the southern coast, the island\u2019s finance ministry said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Export-Import Bank of China <\/a>has agreed to provide a loan covering 85 percent of the contract price for Central Expressway Project \u2014 Section 1, whose total cost is $1.16 billion. The loan is the single largest loan approved by the bank for Sri Lanka, according to a statement from the finance ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loan agreement was signed on Friday by finance ministry Secretary R H S Samaratunga and Cheng Xueyuan, China\u2019s ambassador in Sri Lanka on behalf of the Export-Import Bank, at the Ministry of Finance in the capital Colombo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expressway will create “an uninterrupted connectivity” among Hambantota district towns with the China-run port, an airport near Colombo, and Kandy in the central region, where the famed Ceylon tea grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement said the proposed highway will improve the inter-regional connectivity and efficiency of the entire expressway network and added that it will link “several provinces and economically important ports, airports and commercial cities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loan comes as Sri Lanka struggles to repay $5.9 billion in foreign loans this year, of which 40 percent must be paid by the end of this month. The country used its reserves to repay a $1 billion sovereign bond loan in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is from China, with loans obtained to build highways and other infrastructure projects, including some that have become white elephants, deepening the country’s debt burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka leased the Chinese-built port in Hambantota, which is near the world’s busiest east-west shipping route, to a Chinese firm in 2017 for 99 years in a bid to recover from the heavy burden of repaying a loan obtained the country received to build the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The port is part of Beijing’s so-called string-of-pearls plan for a line of ports stretching from Chinese waters to the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\t