Sri
Lanka Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said his country was seeking
Japanese investment in sectors such as power, infrastructure and
dedicated investment zones, as well as in the green and digital
economies.
The South Asian island nation is working to restructure its
massive debt to continue a $2.9 billion bailout from the
International Monetary Fund, after its worst financial crisis in
more than seven decades last year triggered default and the
resignation of its president.
"We are confident that Sri Lanka's economic recovery, which has
made a promising start, and future growth prospects will provide
us with greater opportunities to enhance the Japan-Sri Lanka
relationship," Sabry told a news conference.
He was joined by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi,
who is in Colombo as part of a multi-country diplomatic tour
including India, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia and the
Maldives.
"I conveyed my expectations for further progress in the debt
restructuring process and stressed the importance of a
transparent and comparable debt restructuring that involves all
creditor countries," Hayashi said.
He did not respond publicly to Sabry's investment invitation.
Japan's historically vibrant relations with Sri Lanka cooled
after the island unilaterally suspended a $2 billion light
railway project in 2020.
Ties improved in recent months after President Ranil
Wickremesinghe appealed to Japan to help Sri Lanka weather the
crisis, caused by economic mismanagement by successive
governments, deep tax cuts and then the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wickremesinghe received Cabinet approval this month to
reactivate the light rail project.
Lying along key shipping routes in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka
has become a hot spot for influence between India and Japan on
the one side and China on the other.
Japan is Sri Lanka's biggest bilateral lender after China, with
about $2.7 billion in outstanding loans, according to finance
ministry data. India is the third key creditor.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Lincoln Feast and
William Mallard)
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