President Ranil Wickremesinghe has made a special statement in Parliament and said that he received the letter sent by China Export Import Bank regarding debt restructuring last night (March 6) and that he signed the letter and took steps to submit it to the International Monetary Fund.
The President will comment further on that.
“We received the new letter from China Exim Bank last night. That same night myself and the Governor of the Central Bank signed the letter of agreement and have now sent it to the IMF. Now our duties are done. Now I hope that the duties of the IMF will be fulfilled in the third or fourth week before the end of this month. After that, I think we will get the first round of money from the World Bank, ADB.”
The President has further stated that if those actions are “disrupted” during the economic reform program in Sri Lanka, the situation in Sri Lanka will be much worse than the situation in February last year. Pensions will be lost. Jobs will be lost. Industries will close. Schools will be flooded every day,” “We have controlled them to some extent. But if influential groups in the society disrupt the program we have proposed through various measures, the social options that will emerge from it will be extremely dangerous. It will lead to an unprecedented sad time in our society.”
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, while expressing his opinion regarding the agitations and protests, said, “We accept the right to express opinions, but if these are going to be disrupted through these agitations, I would like to say that this government will act strongly on it.”
The President has also suggested the opposition to join him in order to recover the economy.
“Once we get everything, we can decide the next vote. Who is wanted in the presidential election and the general election. Until then, I am asking whether or not there is a delay. You can accept this. You can refuse. But the country decides that.” “It will be up to them. Or give us another option. After that, we will bring a new draft about the way forward and future programs and give it to the National Assembly in the Parliament. Currently, there have been many reports from the National Assembly and Committees of the Parliament. I am thankful to them. But we were able to do this work within 8 months. We declare that we will take advantage of it and move forward.”
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