Japan resumes funding Sri Lanka after debt restructure

COLOMBO: Japan will resume funding stalled infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, including the expansion of the main international airport, government officials said Wednesday, after the bankrupt island nation successfully restructured its foreign debt.

Bilateral lenders including Japan had cut project funding when Sri Lanka defaulted on its $46 billion in foreign borrowings two years ago during an unprecedented economic crisis.

“Japan is the first country to resume financing for the suspended projects,” its ambassador to Sri Lanka Hideaki Mizukoshi told reporters.

A Sri Lankan finance ministry official said Japan will in the coming weeks release the first tranche of about $75 million for 11 projects suspended after Colombo’s sovereign default, including the Colombo airport expansion.