Thursday, March 21, 2019

There is news and more news, but what can we believe? Now Oman denies any knowledge about the largest FDI ever!




Who is kidding whom?


All the newspapers are full of a full page advertisement taken by the GOSL trumpeting this investment of Rs 720,000 Million or in effect Rs 720Billion as the largest FDI ever! In includes the Oil Refinery referred to above with a company by the name of Silver Park Petroleum Private Limited and another investment of a cement producer by the name of Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation Private Limited. So I ask the question what to believe?

Is there a conspiracy to discredit the Government by parties coming to the BOI and fooling them to sign documents regarding FDIs and immediately having one of the parties to the agreement, or at least purported parties, denying its very existence? This is tantamount to taking the GOSL for a ride, and they seem to be quite blasé about being taken for a ride, especially when the BOI spokesperson assures the media that nothing is amiss, when a lot of this is all A MISS INFORMATION!

Who is behind this disinformation conspiracy? Should this kind of thing be a red rag to the intelligence agencies of this country, as it clearly the undermines the authority of the State in a way that discredits anything that is disclosed by the state?

I bet the intelligence agencies are sleeping soundly tonight and will wake up to this news this morning, and say this has nothing to do with us, we only worry about gun running or conspiracies to do away with the already discredited top brass of the land!

This is far more serious stuff, and we don’t have an intelligence agency to investigate the legitimacy of the jokers who come into the offices of the BOI to tell tales.

Frankly, if we have any sense, every Johnny, the investor and their local handlers, as soon as they walk in the door of the BOI to meet the DG or the Chairman, should be in the SPYGLASS of the defense intelligence agencies and a report placed on the President’s desk within 24 hours of their entering about their bona fides, and past history, especially Interpol records, as it seems that only the low life of the world knowing the way we seem to attract them like flies venture inside, if they feel that there is an opportunity at some kind of fleecing of a nation.

Now it is time to get back to basics. We are talking of a huge investment in an oil refinery in Hambantota! Has anyone in the environment lobby even been activated on this, as oil refineries are no longer being built anywhere in the world, and only Sri Lanka seems to even encourage one as we seem to be so desperate for headaches of the future!

Yes please we will have one.

What kind of Country is this? How about an investment in an offshore solar electricity generation plant to supply the region instead with the potential to grow? No we are waiting to import surplus electricity from a Nuclear Plant in India instead, as that would provide us cheap electricity sometime in the future!
I digress, just to make a point and to belittle this hair-brained scheme!

After all we should have had the Iranian Refinery that was on the cards 30 years ago when it was discussed, we would not have had to spend BILLIONS of dollars in foreign exchange in this period for refined petroleum products if we had then. Moreover there was no environment lobby then to put the skids on.
Now once the need for fossil fuel has passed, as they are only pollutants that no one in their RIGHT MINDS want, we are getting in on the act!

My God help Mother Lanka from its own leaders!

Further clarification on this denial by the Financial Times of 21st March 2019

http://www.ft.lk/front-page/Oman-denies-it-has-agreed-to-invest-in-Sri-Lanka-oil-refinery-project/44-675045 

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