The delayed Colombo Port City project, a plan to create a South Asian financial hub, hasbeen given the green light, the Sri Lankan ambassador to China confirmed on Friday. The $1.4 billion urban complex project will cover 233 hectaresadjoining the Port of Colombo. The deal was signed between the SriLankan government and the China Communications Construction Coin November 2013. "We feel Colombo is ideal for a South Asian financial hub,"Ambassador Karunasena Kodituwakku said in an interview withChina Daily. The location of the project will help connect businesses from India,Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Singapore and theMiddle East, he said.

The Colombo Port City is one of China's key projects along the 21stMaritime Silk Road. "The most important South Asian port" under theinitiative "will be a port in Colombo or another port in Sri Lanka", saidthe ambassador. Colombo Port City will become "a high-end urban complex in South Asia concentratingindustries, including finance, tourism, logistics and information technology", and the wholeproject will create more than 80,000 jobs, according to the Chinese Embassy to Sri Lanka. However, the Sri Lankan government suspended the project in early 2015 after MaithripalaSirisena became president.

A greater environmental impact assessment to allay public concern was needed, which was"not the fault of the Chinese company", Kodituwakku said. The construction project's "incremental environmental impacts" were assessed as"minimal/negligible at the reclamation site and the coastal zone to the North and South of thesite," said an environmental impact report released in December by the Sri Lankan CoastConservation and Coastal Resource Management Department. "The project will create employment. It will create tax income and indirect opportunities forother services. Everybody will benefit," the ambassador said.

While refuting claims by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe that his government had allocated funds required to increase public sector salaries, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that no such funds had been allocated.

A Fundamental Rights petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking an order preventing Ranjan Ramanayake from contesting the parliamentary election scheduled for November 14.

Claiming that Sri Lanka has come a long way in terms of undertaking reforms which have led to some hard won gains, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)said they could move fast towards the third review which will come up soon.

The Election Commission has decided to mark the voters' index fingers for this year's general elections, Commissioner General Saman Ratnayake announced. He said the elections are scheduled for November 14, 2024.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is set to hold a series of meetings with the High Commissioners of South Africa and New Zealand, along with the Ambassadors of Iran and Myanmar, as well as a delegation from the European Union today (25) at the Presidential Secretariat.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the security threats to Israeli nationals in the Arugam Bay area, Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath said.

Sri Lanka should get its foreign policy right in the wake of the escalating Middle East crisis, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mujibur Rahman said today.

The Canadian government has issued a travel advisory urging travellers to exercise a high degree of caution in Sri Lanka due to demonstrations, the threat of terrorist attacks and crime, particularly in the Arugam Bay area.

Sri Lankan security forces have been alerted to a potential attack on Israelis in the Arugam Bay area by Indian intelligence agencies. According to intelligence information, the threat is believed to be targeted at foreign nationals.

Former Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara asked why the government did not take action to beef up security for foreign tourists in advance if it had received information on a possible threat on October 7, according to the statement made by Acting Chief of Police.