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According to Wickrem-esinghe, the proposals submitted by the China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) and the subsequent Cabinet approval are being deliberately kept away from the public domain. “We could visit the Ministry to inspect the proposals CCCC submitted and the respective Cabinet approval but just in case you would need a lorry to move these documents,” said Wickremesinghe in Parliament yesterday making a special statement under Standing Order 23 (2).
“The Government prepared a scheme on the development of Colombo and the suburbs in 1985. Again, the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Housing Development Authority presented the Colombo Metropolitan Regional Structure Plan in 1998 which proposed the port area development and seven Economic Development Centres. Based also on those proposals, Cesma International Ltd., in Singapore presented the Western Region Megapolis Plan to the Board of Investment in 2004. That plan contained proposals on facilities for a port city, stores, re-exportation, operational and seaboard industries on the land belonging to the Ports Authority. It had been proposed to get an additional land of 145 hectares required for the purpose by filling the adjacent sea area. It had also been proposed to build business centres as an extension to the Colombo Fort. In both plans, the space required for certain of business and other services including industrial and tourism services had been identified,” he said.
Requesting the Prime Minister to submit a full report to Parliament on the connection between the two schemes submitted by China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) approved by the Cabinet Wickremesinghe raised a series of questions.
“Include the following particulars also in that report. The results of studying the previously submitted schemes at the stage of approving the CCCC schemes by the Government; whether satisfied or not with the extent of land identified for development of the two schemes previously submitted; if it had been planned at the initial schemes to implement it as a development project in the public sector; the reasons to refuse that plan; the underlying reasons for selling a majority of the land to a private company according to the new scheme; abandoning the strategic plans pertaining to the port at this scheme; the reasons for abandoning the proposal in the plan by Cesma International in spite of its cost for filling the area adjoining the land being less than the cost for filling the sea. Also the three plans for the Colombo Metropolitan Regional Structure Plan, Western Region Megapolis Plan and Colombo Port City Plan and their reports. Environment in addition to sea wave, geo-hydrological reports and the periods they were received in relation to the CCCC schemes approved by the Cabinet.
“The awareness of the Government of the fact that by the time the CCCC scheme was presented to it the said company had been banned by the World Bank for the reason that the company had violated guidelines under No. 1.15 (a) (ii) of the Procurement Procedures of the World Bank and that even the appeal submitted by the company had been rejected. Also the connections that exist between China Communication Construction Company and China Road and Bridge Corporation and China Harbour Engineering Company,” he added.
In response Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne stated that large numbers of documents are required to respond to Wickremesinghe’s questions and there can be time constraints as well. “Although the Opposition Leader gave a list of plans none of them were executable. Under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Colombo Port City Project was started and suitable investors were found. The Leader of the Opposition gave historical background to this project and we will inform the house after due studies.”
