Govt paying for former regime’s sins - Minister Harsha De Silva
by Manjula Fernando
Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha De Silva said the present government
was paying the price for the sins of Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose government
believed in image- building through money that was loaned.
Holding a press conference on the sidelines of a ceremony to award
title deeds to low income families in Obesekerapura yesterday, the
Deputy Minister said the foreign debt crisis of the government should be
viewed sans any political colouring.
The Minister said former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was asking what
happened to the US $6361 million loans obtained by our government,
aleeging that not even a culvert has been built during the past 15
months. “We did not get this money for development projects. That is the
total amount obtained to replay the debt burden we inherited,” the
Deputy Minister said.
He said the loans of the previous government were spent on projects
that more or less served to build Mahinda Rajapaksa’s image more than
for the country.
“None of the development projects of the last regime including the
Hambantota Port and Oil Farm projects are yielding profits to repay even
the interest component of the loan,” the Deputy Minister said. The
Rajapaksa government has obtained US$ 1975 million as commercial loans
and another US$ 2490 as development bonds, under high interests.
He said the Opposition should not try to hoodwink public and score
brownie points on the currency swap the finance ministry arranged with
the Indian Central Bank either. “It was an official deal between the two
countries.”
The government has obtained US$ 1500 through this arrangement but it
has already been reversed. The Deputy Minister said such exchanges are
based on goodwill and they can do similar transactions even with China.
“They were short term exchanges, Mahinda Rajapaksa government have
done many such currency swaps,” he said.
The Minister said the government was not planning to do development
projects on loans instead their plan was to invite foreign investment to
the country.
“We are not looking for short term bliss and drag the country into
further crisis.. this debt mess we have inherited from Rajapaksas might
take longer to untangle,” the Deputy Minister said urging the parties
not to rock the boat for petty gains.
He said the government is in dialogue with Korean, Japanese and other
tech giants to invest in Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka is not a major market for their goods so if we make our
country a platform to reach the bigger markets in the region such as
India they will be interested in Sri Lanka. That is why we need trade
agreements with countries such as India,” he said. |