PM pledges to pay off Rs. 3 trillion foreign debt within next two years

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday pledged to complete the foreign debt payment of Rs. 3 trillion within the next two years.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Asoka Pura model village under the Village Reawakening (Udaa-Gammanaya) program in Naththandiya in Puttalam district, the Prime Minister said the 2018 budget is aimed at developing the country while providing relief for the people.

Asokapura model village is the 43rd reawakened village with 98 houses built in a 10 acres of land under the "Shelter for All" Housing Project. Each house has a 12 perches yard and the village is complete with electricity, drinking water and well-designed access roads and internal road network. A sum of Rs. 76.35 million were spent for the project with all infrastructure facilities.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe laid the foundation to build a new multi-purpose building for the need of the house recipients. Presentation of entitlement documents to the beneficiaries also took place at the occasion. Necessary equipment were distributed among 400 families who are engaged in self-employment in the district.

Housing aid of Rs. 500,000 was donated to ACL Nuwan Kumara, a student of Kimbulwana School in Kurunegala, who excelled in the Grade 5 scholarship examination recently.

Speaking at the gathering, the Prime Minister said the question is how to complete the payment of Rs. 3 trillion within the next two years.

He said the Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera will make the provisions in the 2018 and  2019 s to pay this massive public debt. "Finding such a massive sum of money is not an easy task," the Premier said adding that "our generation should repay the debt without handing over to the next generation."

He said it is essential to continue this government while making it easy to repay those debts. The government will achieve this objective in two years and the government will not flee from this situation, he assured.

The Premier asserted that the massive debt will be repaid within the next two years by strengthening the economy.