COLOMBO - In an islandwide poll conducted for a leading business magazine in Sri Lanka, 72 percent of the respondents believe that China is key to Sri Lanka's economic progress, local media reported on Friday.

In the poll conducted for business magazine LMD by research firm Kantar TNS, survey participants pointed out that China provides donations and credit facilities to Sri Lanka while also being the main contributor to large-scale projects implemented in the island country.

A majority of the participants also selected China as "their preferred choice" as a country to be relied on in the long term.

China is one of Sri Lanka's largest financial contributors with investments worth billions of dollars brought into the island country for industrial and economic development, education and health.

The Chinese projects in Sri Lanka include a mega Port City project in Colombo, which will be the first of its kind in South Asia and the development of the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka.