The Cabinet today approved to lease the Hambantota port to the Chinese Merchants Company under a revised agreement, Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said today.
He said that the revised agreement will be presented in the Parliament tomorrow and will be taken up for debated on July 28.
Furthermore, the Minister said that the agreement with the Chinese Merchant Company is due to be signed on July 29.
The Minister said under the new agreement administrative and commercial operations will be operated by two separate Sri Lankan companies.
The administrative operations will be handled by the Hambantota International Port Services and Commercial operations will be handled by Hambantota International Port Group (Pvt.) Ltd.
According to the agreement, the Sri Lankan company will be given the greater equity of the administrative operations (50.7%) and the Chinese Company will be given the greater equity of the Commercial operations (85%).
The Chinese Merchants Company agreed to sell the Port Authority a further 20 percent equity in the course of five years.