{"id":82504,"date":"2023-08-18T01:02:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T05:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=82504"},"modified":"2023-08-18T01:54:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T05:54:11","slug":"82504","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=82504","title":{"rendered":"China reiterates support for Sri Lanka\u2019s debt relief ahead of crucial IMF review but Sri Lanka and bilateral lenders are yet to reach agreement on a debt treatment plan"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

China has pledged help for Sri Lanka\u2019s debt challenge yet again,even as theRanil Wickremesinghe government tries to finalise the terms of restructuring its foreign loans with bilateral creditors.<\/p>\n

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday \u201cvowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt\u201d, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who was the chief guest at the ongoing China-South Asia Exhibition in Kunming, in China\u2019s southern Yunnan Province.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wang \u201cvowed that China will help Sri Lanka improve its capacity for independent development, get rid of the poverty trap and the trap of non-development, accelerate its industrialisation process and agricultural modernisation.\u201d Mr. Gunawardena, who earlier called China a \u201cdecisive global leader\u201d, thanked the government for its \u201cfirm support\u201d for Sri Lanka in \u201csafeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for its timely and effective assistance\u201d to Sri Lanka in times of difficulty, the PM\u2019s office said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, the statement did not indicate if Sri Lanka and China have reached an agreement on debt treatment, a development that Colombo keenly awaits, ahead of a crucial assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next month. An IMF team is scheduled to visit Colombo from September 14 to 27, to conduct the first review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) extended to Sri Lanka, according to a spokesperson of the Fund.<\/p>\n

While the first tranche of the EFF was disbursed soon after the IMF approved the $3-billion package in March this year, the second instalment is contingent on the Fund\u2019s assessment of Sri Lanka\u2019s progress on its commitments, including on debt treatment.
\nSri Lanka is currently in talks with all its bilateral creditors to finalise the terms of restructuring the debt owed to them. China, the island\u2019s largest bilateral lender, has refused to become a member of the common platform that 17 creditor countries set up in May this year to negotiate Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign debt. While India and Japan emphasise the need for comparable terms, parity, and transparency, China continues to be an observer in the \u201cofficial creditor committee\u201d, co-chaired by India, Japan, and France.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s decision to stay out of the forum has made other creditors wary, according to Colombo-based official sources privy to the talks. The bilateral creditors, it is learnt, are yet to finalise the contours of their debt treatment plan, and are exploring different options including a moratorium, a longer repayment term, a partial write-off, or a combination of these measures. Sri Lanka has expressed confidence in China\u2019s bilateral cooperation over a debt restructuring plan while assuring other creditors that the treatment will be comparable.<\/p>\n

Courtes: The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan China has pledged help for Sri Lanka\u2019s debt challenge yet again,even as theRanil Wickremesinghe government tries to finalise the terms of restructuring its foreign loans with bilateral creditors. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday \u201cvowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt\u201d, according to a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘China reiterates support for Sri Lanka\u2019s debt relief ahead of crucial IMF review but Sri Lanka and bilateral lenders are yet to reach agreement on a debt treatment plan’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82504"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82507,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82504\/revisions\/82507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}