“Sri Lankan exporters need better export financing-they are on credit and they don’t have working capital so they have to look for bank overdrafts which the banks are reluctant to issue,” she said.
The proposed Exim Bank will help solve this problem since the Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance will guarantee orders and Exim Bank can finance them based on the guarantee, she told a forum on multilateral trade agreements in Colombo.
Banga said that the Commonwealth Secretariat will help formulate the proposed Exim Bank of Sri Lanka during the international trade forum organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat with the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka, and the Institute of Policy Studies and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
The Commonwealth Office in London gave the first Exim Bank concept paper to the Government of Sri Lanka after it was proposed in the budget, Banga said.
“We are now ready to give technical assistance to set it up. Even the Indian Exim Bank was set up by our technical assistance.”
(COLOMBO, March 16, 2016)