• Says there is a challenge and we are here to face it

By Yohan Perera

Chief Government Whip, Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said on Saturday that Sri Lanka will honour its loan obligations and settle all due instalments in time without default.

Responding to questions of the media during an award ceremony in Kandy to felicitate public and private sector employees who contributed to realise the goals set by the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour programme of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the minister said that last year to the members of opposition expressed similar fears that Sri Lanka would not be able to settle its loans. “Yet, we paid due instalments and we will do the same this year too. There is a challenge and we are here to face it. We would not run away from the challenges. We’ll honour our loan obligations,” the Minister said.

Minister Fernando said that people speak of an economic crisis. “There is a shortage of US dollars. Yet that does not bar us from developing the country. We have set our goals and the government has allotted necessary funds for the development projects. It is the responsibility of each ministry to achieve the goals that have been set for that particular ministry. If we fail to do so, after another two years’ time, people would say that we did not develop this country citing COVID-19 as a reason.  We must realise the goals that had been set in the President’s policy manifesto.”

Responding to a question by a journalist that there were queues of people to purchase essential food items, the minister said: “Queues are temporary. There had been queues during the Yahapalana government’s time too. People were in the queues waiting for fuel shipments. There is a shortage of foreign exchange reserves. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we brought down many Lankans from abroad. Of them, around 150,000 are still here. They used to send money home. Now that revenue is not coming. That is one reason for the shortage of dollars. This is not a sign of the collapse of the economy, as our opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is trying to convince people. We would not let this country go bankrupt. As I said, there is a challenge before us and we are confident that we can face this successfully,” the minister said.

Asked to comment on social media reports that the government has issued a cabinet paper to postpone local government and provincial council elections, the minister said that there was no such cabinet paper. “I have not seen such a cabinet paper. Let’s wait and see whether such a cabinet paper would be presented, but I can assure you there is no such thing I heard until now,” the minister said.

• There is a shortage of US dollars. Yet that does not bar us from developing the country. We have set our goals and the government has allotted necessary funds for the development projects