APD | Sri Lanka dismisses concerns on Chinese products

By APD writer Easwaran

COLOMBO, March 11 (APD) -- Sri Lanka on Monday dismissed concerns on using Chinese products after the US had raised concerns on Chinese mobile phones.

Sri Lanka is among 170 countries Huawei Technologies, a Chinese company, has deployed its products and services.

There have been concerns in some countries on using Huawei products over claims the Founder of Huawei served in the military.

“Business and politics are two different things. We should never mix the two. Sri Lanka has successfully and safely been using Chinese products including Huawei in a big way. Politically countries may have different agendas but theyshould not stand in the way of consumers benefiting from the cutting edge technologies. They claim Founder of Huawei served in the military. So what? Many CEOs might have served in military. That does not make their commercial products military or political,” Sri Lanka’s Minister of Digital infrastructure and Information Technology Ajith Perera said.

He said that in a free market what matters are the quality and price of the products and Huawei offers great products.

“Why not use them to our own business advantage? UK and France are of that view. I am happy to see US President Donald Trump too tweeting “I want the United State to win thorough competition, not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies”. So it is not the US President behind this move. I too share Trump’s stance. I am sure that is the stance of the Sri Lankan market,” the Minister said.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)