Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe at NDTV World Summit
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Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe thanked India for its financial assistance during Sri Lanka\u2019s economic crisis, saying New Delhi stood by Colombo through some of its most difficult years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Abeysinghe acknowledged India\u2019s role in helping Sri Lanka navigate the crisis that began in 2022, when severe shortages of fuel and other essentials, soaring inflation and a collapse in foreign currency reserves triggered widespread public anger and political upheaval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would like to thank the Indian Government and its people for being there for us at this difficult stage,\u201d Abeysinghe said. \u201cWe came out of the economic crisis since 2022, and India greatly supported us with a lot of financial assistance and being there for us in all these difficult years\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked what the transition from recovery to economic transformation would mean for Sri Lanka over the next three to five years, Abeysinghe said the Government had concentrated on restoring financial stability, restructuring debt and introducing reforms intended to prevent a repeat of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t see any risk in future in our debt repayments. And lastly, the legal peace that was supposed to be made in structural reforms, we have done. So the things that we are facing now with the global crisis are a reduction in our growth trajectory and also the reforms that we are doing. Some of them are taking time. So that\u2019s why they have mentioned that even though we have recovered, we have stabilised. There\u2019s more to do. So, in terms of the next few years, the real change that\u2019s going to come from the efforts that we are putting to get our infrastructure right, because for growth, we are moving from stability to growth now,\u201d he told NDTV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next stage, he added, would focus on moving beyond economic stability towards expansion, with infrastructure development expected to play a central role. According to Abeysinghe, many infrastructure projects had remained stalled for nearly six years, beginning in 2019, but the Government had now restarted them and was working to accelerate their implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cited India\u2019s experience of gradually opening its markets during the 1990s as an example Sri Lanka could learn from as it sought to integrate more closely with the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think India did this in the 1990s, slowly opening markets to the world to connect to the rest of the world. So the para-tariffs are being removed, and the trade adjustments are taking place. And I think with that, we will be able to go for FTAs, more FTAs, and that is, these are the reforms that are going to change Sri Lanka within the next three to fivr years. And I think from an industrial perspective and an economic perspective, we are eagerly, keenly looking for partnerships because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to make this change for us,\u201d Abeysinghe told NDTV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Sri Lanka\u2019s exports were worth nearly US$ 18 billion, with about a quarter going to the United States and a fifth to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are also an energy-dependent country, so basically everything adjusts based on the energy prices. Within this year, energy prices have escalated three times, and it has impacted us with higher inflation and also pushed our cost of manufacturing up. So what we are doing now is, given the fiscal consolidation we have, the Government is continuing to maintain a fiscal buffer. So we were able to adjust to a certain level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Daily News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe at NDTV World Summit Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Deputy Minister Chathuranga…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t