Sri Lankan president thanks China for help

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday expressed appreciation for China's help in post-war reconstruction.

Sri Lanka welcomes investment from China and other parts of the world, Rajapaksa said at the concluding press conference of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (GHOGM).

China has provided loans to Sri Lanka in building ports, highways, railways, and power plants.

The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, the main venue of the GHOGM, was donated by the Chinese government in the 1970s and was refurbished for GHOGM, the most important meeting of the 53-member bloc.

The island's second highway, which was funded by Chinese loan of 292 million U.S. dollars, opened in October, reducing the time for travel between the country's main international airport and the capital city to just 30 minutes from one and a half hour.

Since Sri Lanka ended a 30-year civil war in 2009, China has emerged as the island's largest loan provider with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars delivered in 2009 and 821 million dollars in 2010.