Warmer relations between India and China could ease the reservations that have kept Indian companies out of the Colombo Port City, the project’s deputy managing director has said, in an interview published by the Daily Mirror.

Thulci Aluwihare, Deputy Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo, said talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit were “symbolic somewhat”, but that Xi’s visit to India indicated the two countries could now do more business together. “It’s a bit too early still,” he said.

The number: US$2.1 billion, 15 lots of 74

Aluwihare put secured investment at US$2.1 billion, covering land and buildings across 15 of the project’s 74 marketable lots.

He was explicit that these are not prospects. Some lots have already been leased, meaning financial closure is done; for others a binding agreement has been signed with an initial down payment. “If anybody who has made an advance and signed a binding agreement pulls out, they will lose that advance,” he said — a sum substantial enough, he argued, that withdrawal is unlikely.

The money will not arrive at once. He estimated the US$2 billion would flow over three to four years, roughly 25% a year, because it covers a construction period.

A hedge against India’s own concentration risk

The pitch to Indian firms is not that Sri Lanka can compete with India, but that it can back it up.

India is “the capital of global capability centres” — the captive back-office, software and services operations that Western banks, insurers and corporates run there, Aluwihare said. Amid current geopolitical conditions, those principals want to diversify risk and guarantee business continuity and disaster recovery. Port City is positioning itself as that alternate location.

He argued Sri Lanka could also take on a share of GCC functions directly, naming HR, finance, software development and receivables collection, and citing the country’s accounting and finance talent pool — after the UK, he said, Sri Lanka has the largest pool of such graduates.

Two practical inducements are already in place: the Indian rupee is an accepted currency inside the Port City, and Indians receive a five-year visa. An operation in Chennai is an hour’s flight away, he noted, and Indian staff posted to Colombo can be paid in INR.

The ownership question, and a PR firm to answer it

Aluwihare was direct about the obstacle. “I think there is a misconception about what Port City is,” he said.

The land remains owned by the Government of Sri Lanka; the Chinese company is the developer and investor, and business licences are issued by the Port City Economic Commission on behalf of the government. In talks with prospective Indian investors, he said, some did not know this — so the project has appointed a dedicated public relations firm to put the facts to them.

“Of course, there are some geopolitical headwinds, but we can address that factually by saying this is part of Colombo or the Government of Sri Lanka,” he said.

He pointed to IFS, the Swedish software company, as precedent: its sister company IGT-1 occupies two buildings in the zone. Indian decision-making, he said, is slower because final approval rests with the Western principals rather than the Indian GCC itself. Some discussions are “advanced”.

On the Middle East, he said the UAE had been a primary market even before the current conflict, largely for real estate, because of its familiarity with planned-city development.

Context and caution

Aluwihare is speaking for the developer, and the figures above are the company’s own. No independent verification of the US$2.1 billion or the 15-lot count appears in the reporting, and the Port City Economic Commission is not quoted.

Not reported

Neither report names the 15 lots or the companies behind them, says how much of the US$2.1 billion has actually been received, or identifies the PR firm appointed to address Indian investors. Neither gives the number of Indian companies currently in advanced discussions, nor how many of the roughly 200 firms registered to date are Indian.