China will build a large exhibition and convention centre in Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port City, as a grant project, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
The centre will be bigger than the Bandaranaike Memorial International Convention Hall (BMICH) he said.
“This will be able to hold large conventions and make it a big hub in South Asia,” President Dissanayake said in a public meeting, Sunday.
“We will start it very quickly.”
According to the published plan of the Port City, a convention centre with 20,000-30,000 square metres of event space, a 3,000-seater auditorium, 4,000-seater multi-purpose space, and a 400 to 450-key business hotel with meeting rooms and breakout spaces was expected to come up.
In addition, China is also giving a 500 million yuan grant (about 68 million US dollars), President Dissanayake said.
“This is about 20 billion rupees,” President Dissanayake said. “We can use it to reduce rural poverty and develop public services.”
China also had an advanced agricultural sector with high yields. China had agreed to give technical assistance to boost yields, he said.