evidence: The Government yesterday struggled to clarify its own claims that a recently launched vehicle assembly plant in Kuliyapitiya was a venture by the German automaker Volkswagen, after the company publicly denied any investment in Sri Lanka at present. A USD 26.5 million vehicle assembly plant was launched in Kuliyapitiya on 3 January by President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe. The launch was widely reported in the state and private media on the basis of Government claims that the factory would manufacture Volkswagen cars for export after a three year period of manufacturing for the local market. [...] Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam also told a news website that the Government "had never said" the Kuliyapitiya factory was a Volkswagen plant, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.