COLOMBO — Sri Lanka suspended a $1.5 billion Chinese luxury real estate project in Colombo on Thursday until it obtains required government approvals, a move that risks a diplomatic row with its biggest foreign investor. The new government, elected in January promising to end the corruption it said was rife, decided at a Cabinet meeting to suspend the project critics have called a sweetheart deal between China and the previous administration. The project, the biggest of several Chinese investments in Sri Lankan ports and infrastructure, involves a port on reclaimed land in the capital, complete with shopping malls, a water sports area, golf course, hotels, apartments and marinas. Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC) project had been launched “without relevant approvals from concerned institutions”. — Reuters
