Acknowledgments
The views expressed in this study are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official view of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies or its Board of Management, or any other institution with which the authors are affiliated.
The authors would like to extend our appreciation to the International Development Research Centre and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation for their generous support of this research. Their support funded a high-level expert roundtable and panel discussion in Sri Lanka and enabled the extensive fieldwork for this research paper.
Fieldwork was undertaken at several project sites in Colombo and Hambantota, including the Colombo Port City, the CICT terminal of the Colombo port, the Hambantota port and the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa International Convention Centre, and Mattala International Airport. We also undertook interviews at relevant institutions such as the Board of Investment, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defence, and the Sri Lanka Navy, among others. We wish to express our thanks to all who facilitated these visits and participated in interviews and meetings. The study also benefited from the insights of experts at the launch of this study on 1 November 2018 in Colombo, including Professor Katherine Adeney, Dr Chulanee Attanayake, Professor Xiong Bin, Dr Alex Lechner, Dr Li Li, Dr S. D. Muni, Dr Selim Raihan, and Professor Lutz-Christian Wolff. We are particularly grateful to Grace Asirwatham, Vice Admiral Piyal de Silva, Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu and Dr Dushni Weerakoon.
We are grateful to Dr Champa Patel, Chloe Sageman and the Chatham House publications team for their collaboration and meticulous editing of the report, as well as their feedback, support and patience throughout the process. Finally, thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers and to other colleagues at Chatham House for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper, as well as to the supporters of Chatham House’s Asia-Pacific Programme.