28 September 2016 12:02 am
Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic and the United Kingdom had conveyed this message of the respective countries when the top diplomats met Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake at the Finance Ministry yesterday.
The four nations are powerful members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which was created in 1961 to work for the economic development and international trade.
These four countries are responsible in deciding loan interest rates on international borrowings.
Sri Lanka’s current overall debt is nearly Rs.8, 500 billion and, 42 percent out of it is foreign debt.
Attention was paid to minimize the interests being paid on this colossal debt in order to ease out the debt burden on Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka will also be unable to obtain loans on lower interest when the country becomes a middle income level country in the near future.
Therefore, the government has already implemented a large number of development projects in order to uplift the living status of the people and, the support of the international community is sought further to continue this development agenda until it reaches the set targets.
Accordingly, the foreign missions in Sri Lanka were requested to issue recommendations to enable Sri Lanka to obtain relief loans at low interest from the World Bank during this meeting.
Ambassadors and High Commissioners who agreed to the request by Sri Lanka stated that they would convey the same to the top echelons of the World Bank through their country representatives.
World Bank country representative in Sri Lanka Dr. Idah Pswarayi Riddihough and Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga also participated at the discussion.
Accordingly, the foreign missions in Sri Lanka were requested to issue recommendations to enable Sri Lanka to obtain relief loans at low interest from the World Bank during this meeting.
Ambassadors and High Commissioners who agreed to the request by Sri Lanka stated that they would convey the same to the top echelons of the World Bank through their country representatives. World Bank country representative in Sri Lanka Dr. Idah Pswarayi Riddihough and Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga also participated at the discussion.