The President said that when his government came to power in 2015, it took immediate steps to renegotiate the Colombo Port City Agreement to ensure that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty was not adversely affected by the land transfer.During the discussions, the two parties could arrive at a mutually acceptable agreement to ensure that the land rights would remain with Sri Lanka, he said. While the UDA retains the land ownership, the land extent was leased to the CHEC Port City Colombo Pvt Ltd.

The land grant was handed over by Secretary of Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, Nihal Rupasinghe to UDA Director General S S P Ratnayake in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena and Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan.Later the UDA DG handed over the lease agreement to Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, Jiang Houliang.Secretary to the President Udaya R Seneviratne and Secretary of the Ministry of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms, W H Karunaratne were also present on this occasion.