Interview: China Succeeds in Mobilizing Market Forces
By Lian Guohui

COLOMBO, August 4 (Xinhua) -- China has been a successful example of mobilizing market forces not only in solving the housing problem but also making its companies internationally competitive, a senior Sri Lankan official said Wednesday.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development Indika Gunawardena told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that Sri Lanka will also mobilize market forces to solve its own housing problem.
"To develop and modernize, you have to use market forces," said Gunawardena, who ended a 10-day tour early in July which took him to the major Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Shenzhen.
It is the minister's second visit to China. He last traveled to China in 1997 on a World Bank-funded study tour.
"China is mobilizing market forces in a very skillful and rapid manner in developing Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing," he said.
He said: "China today is a world power in construction, and Hong Kong is very powerful in real estate development. Nearly one third of current ongoing modern real estate construction in the world is in China."
"As other major economies have been slowing down at this time, China has been progressing very fast," he said.
Chinese companies have become major forces in financing and implementing projects in China as well as in the region, he said.
During his trip, Gunawardena, on behalf of the Sri Lankan government, proposed to the Chinese government to cooperate in developing market-based real estate, housing and construction.
In Colombo alone, 51 percent of the city's population live in under-served settlements such as slums and shanties but never had the legal right to settle down in their encroachments.
Gunawardena has proposed a Sustainable Townships Program which will rehouse all 66,000 households currently living in slums and shanties.
Under the program, these households will get free new houses in high-rise buildings while the ministry will get land for renewal and future development.
Nearly 600 acres of encumbered prime land in Colombo will be liberated to sell to developers to fund the program, Gunawardena said, adding that Chinese companies and financial agencies are welcomed to join the program.
"Chinese companies in Sri Lanka are doing many important contracts," said Gunawardena, adding that they are delivering the best quotations in tending and are very competitive.
"China has been a trusted and reliable friend of Sri Lanka," he said.
The minister refuted the criticisms from other competing companies and some funding agencies that Chinese companies are incapable of carrying out the contracts.
"I know they are capable because I have seen what they have done in China. The criticizers should go to China to see for themselves," he said.