NEW DELHI - Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech would soon set up a COVID-19 vaccine plant in Sri Lanka, India's English daily Hindustan Times has reported.

"It will be set up in the dedicated pharmaceutical manufacturing zone in Hambantota," the main town in Hambantota District, Southern Province, the Indian daily quoted Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona as saying.

The newspaper reported on Sunday that Sri Lanka's State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) had approached the Chinese government about setting up a vaccine plant in the zone earlier this year given the rising demand for COVID-19 vaccines in Sri Lanka.

The SPC and Sinovac then finalized a deal and the specifics of the plant are currently being worked out, Kohona said.

The deal will allow Colombo to source as many as 9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, reported the Indian paper.

The Sinovac vaccine is one of the two Chinese vaccines approved by the World Health Organization under its "emergency use listing".