US plans to build a $553 million terminal at Sri Lanka’s Colombo port in rivalry with China

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI and DIDI TANG
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The U.S. has announced plans to launch a $553-million project to build a new, deep-water shipping container terminal in the Port of Colombo as it competes with China in international development financing. The announcement, made Wednesday in Colombo, comes five years after the establishment of the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. in response to Beijing’s massive global infrastructure building campaign, known as the Belt and Road Initiative. China is the world’s largest single official source of international development finance, but the U.S. is closing the gap. Experts warn the U.S. faces a challenge in competing with China’s BRI as it improves the quality of projects it finances, while retaining an advantage in speed of completing them.