COLOMBO, 1 October 2005 — Sri Lanka plans to raise $100 million through an international bond issue aimed at its nationals employed abroad, a Central Bank official said yesterday.
The island hopes that its one-million work force employed overseas will subscribe to the bond issue which will help the government finance its ballooning oil import bill, the official said.
“The pricing and other modalities have not been worked out yet but we aim to tap our large migrant labor force to subscribe to the issue,” Treasury Secretary Punchi Banda Jayasundera said.
Foreign remittances, mainly from Sri Lankans working abroad, jumped to $1.23 billion in the first eight months of this year, up from $1.02 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Sri Lanka is banking on $3.2 billion pledged by foreign donors in aid for its tsunami recovery but official figures show that the inflow of money has been slower than expected. Official figures show that $1 billion has so far been committed to specific projects by the donors but only $454 million has actually been disbursed. More than 31,000 people were killed and a million left homeless by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
