Colombo: With a total of $968 million in loans in four months of 2022, India has emerged as Sri Lanka's largest bilateral lender, overtaking China in the process, a media report said. In the past five years from 2017-2021, China has been the largest bilateral lender to Sri Lanka as China disbursed $947 million, out of which $809 million was obtained as market borrowings from the China Development Bank. The report said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been the largest multilateral lender in the past five years and disbursed funds amounting to $610 million in 2021.
India has disbursed $377 million and ADB has disbursed $360 million, which account for 76% of the total disbursements in the first four months of 2022, according to the report.
Meanwhile, at a UNGA Annual Joint Debate on the Reports of Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj said that India had provided nearly $4 billion in food and financial assistance to Sri Lanka.
“We are continuing to help our good friend and neighbour Sri Lanka to ensure food security by providing nearly $4 billion in food and financial assistance during the past few months,” Kamboj said. On August 22, India handed over 21,000 tonnes of fertiliser to Sri Lanka. “This follows 44,000 tonnes supplied last month under Indian support totalling about $4 billion in 2022. The fertilizer will contribute to food security and support the farmers of Sri Lanka. It demonstrates benefits to the people from close ties with #India and mutual trust and goodwill between #India and #Sri Lanka,” added the High Commission of India.
India has been at forefront of extending economic assistance to Sri Lanka as per their requirements and is one of the countries that have provided the maximum amount of assistance in time of need. Since the beginning of 2022, Lanka has experienced an escalating economic crisis and the government has defaulted on its foreign loans with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the Covid -19 pandemic.
