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.