Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry has called for a ‘global debt restructuring architecture’, in a bid to prevent smaller countries and emerging economies from ‘embroiling in controversy forever’.

Speaking to CNBC during his visit to China, Sabry spoke of several matters of concern, including the potential ways in which China could aid Sri Lanka’s propelled growth.

The foreign minister, who is in China to participate in the World Economic Forum being held in Tianjin from 27 – 29 June, met with his counterpart and Chinese State Councilor Qin Gang, the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China and China’s Finance Minister, and deemed all discussions held with these individuals as ‘very fruitful and cordial’.

All those discussions were very very fruitful and very cordial and they have given us the undertaking that they will continue to support Sri Lanka’s next space of development”, he said.

Speaking further on Zambia’s recent deal with China to restructure USD 6.3 billion in loans, Sabry emphasised that the deal in question gave Sri Lanka a lot of ‘optimism and hope’, adding that it was time for a global debt restructuring architecture.

I think it’s time that we need to have a global debt restructuring architecture’ which would help smaller countries, emerging economies and frontier countries so that they could quickly get out of the trouble and get into the next space without being embroiled in controversy forever”, he said in this regard.

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s current economic situation, Sabry acknowledged that while the country has made moderate gains over the last 10 months, there is a still a ‘long way to go’.

Things are looking better compared to what it used to be, but we have a long way to go”, he said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs also noted that discussions are underway with several parties including bilateral, multilateral and local creditors and bond holders, including private and commercial creditors, in order to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, as part of working in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) debt sustainability analysis, in order to obtain he agreed Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of USD 2.4 billion.