‘We cannot change the previous’: Sri Lankan MP on Chinese funding and debt entice

Harsha de Silva, Sri Lankan MP, on Sunday spoke in regards to the Chinese investments in Sri Lanka and its relation to the present financial and political disaster and stated the one factor left to do is to determine a manner out of the debt entice.

Speaking to India Today, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) get together chief stated, “What is done is done. We can’t undo the projects now. What we can do now is to figure out a way to come out of the debt. We have to restructure it and we have to talk to the Chinese and come to a solution.”

For years collectively, Sri Lanka has been borrowing closely from different nations as a consequence of years of funds shortfalls and commerce deficits. The nation additionally noticed a number of infrastructural tasks that had been constructed utilizing overseas investments, failing to herald any income. This pushed the nation additional into debt.

READ | Sri Lankan scenario is much like that of India’s 1991 financial disaster, says opposition MP Harsha de Silva

Many of those tasks, just like the Rajapaksa airport, Hambantota port, a convention corridor, the Colombo lotus tower are funded by China and Chinese companies and on the similar time, these tasks now stand as reminders of mismanagement of funds.

The Belt and Road Initiative of the Chinese authorities has been criticised by a number of specialists across the globe as an initiative that targets susceptible nations and leads these nations into debt traps.

According to reviews, 10 per cent of the $51 billion exterior debt that Sri Lanka owns is to China and it’s believed that the quantity shall be a lot larger if the loans given to state-owned companies and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka are additionally thought-about.

During the Sri Lankan civil warfare, it was China who lended a serving to hand, however this was not only a neighbour serving to one other neighbour in disaster however a effectively chalked out technique to get a strategic higher hand within the Indian ocean area.

This could be very clear from the Chinese investments in Hambantota, the house district of the Rajapaksas. The Hambantota sea port, envisaged as one of many world’s busiest east-west transport lanes, solely proved to be a catastrophe with only a few takers. The port venture was mired in controversy with allegations of corruption towards the Rajapaksa members of the family. The Rajapaksa airport too did not generate desired outcomes.

In 2017, Hambantota port was given to a Chinese state-owned firm on a 99-year lease as Sri Lankan authorities was struggling to repay the loans. A port metropolis venture being constructed on 665-acre land, with the intention of turning into a monetary hub within the capital of Colombo, can be seen as one which could push the island nation additional into debt bother.

“Some middle ground where we can manage our debt repayment sustainably. We can’t change the past,” Silva stated of the various infrastructural tasks that did not deliver income.

This raises the query: Is Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender pushing the island nation right into a debt entice?