JICA President hopes for earliest conclusion of debt restructuring for Sri Lanka

Dr. TANAKA Akihiko, President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was on an official visit to Sri Lanka from 13 to 16 February, 2024. On 14 February, Dr. Tanaka met with President Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the presidential secretariat.

President Tanaka welcomed the agreement in principle with the Official Creditors Committee at the end of November 2023 on the debt restructuring and expressed hope for the earliest conclusion of the debt restructuring, so the economic conditions of Sri Lanka can get normalized and Sri Lanka can gain confidence from the private sector.

He also conveyed his respect to President Wickremesinghe’s tremendous efforts towards the strong recovery of Sri Lankan economy through the robust reforms.

Dr. Tanaka met with Dinesh Gunawardena, the Prime Minister; Kanchana Wijesekera, the Minister of Power and Energy; Jeevan Thondaman, Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development; Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation on the same day.

During his visit to Sri Lanka, Dr. Tanaka attended the inauguration ceremony of JICA ODA loan project, “Anuradhapura North Water Supply Project Phase 1”, the signing ceremony for the new JICA grant project, “Stabilization of Power Supply Using Renewable Energy at Hospitals” as well as the inspection of several JICA project sites, including the “Bandaranaike International Airport Development Project 2”.