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Heavily-Indebted Sri-Lanka Asks For Chinese Help To Relieve Economic Pressures

Sri Lanka has requested China to provide support of 1B USD for construction of a highway linking Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo to the hilly resort city of Kandy. Sri Lanka is regarded as the heavily-indebted South Asian Island nation bearing a burden of 5.9 billion dollars foreign loans.

 

Sri Lankan Finance Ministry spokesman MR Hasan said that he’s waiting to hear whether terms of the loan for the highway project have been approved.

China sees Sri Lanka as a key link in its transcontinental Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. A large chunk of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is from China.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s government had criticised the previous administration of strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa for driving the country into a Chinese debt trap. Still, the Sri Lankan government has turned to China to reduce economic pressures.

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