Ambassador Perera calls on Japanese Finance Minister ahead of upcoming visit to Sri Lanka

Ambassador E. Rodney M. Perera (right) and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki

A pivotal meeting was held between Ambassador E. Rodney M. Perera and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo.  At the discussion it was announced that the Japanese Finance Minister accompanied by ten senior officials of the Finance Ministry, would undertake a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka from 11 to 12 January 2024.  This meeting was pursuant to a brief exchange that Ambassador Perera and Finance Minister Suzuki had during the Garden Party hosted by the Emperor and Empress of Japan a month earlier. 

Expressing gratitude for the opportunity to meet the Finance Minister, Ambassador Perera extended his appreciation to Minister Suzuki and his team for their proposed visit and dedicated efforts towards assisting Sri Lanka’s economic restructuring initiatives bilaterally and in the international arena.  Ambassador Perera also emphasised Sri Lanka’s eagerness to modernise its economy and industry, leveraging Japan’s experience and expertise from the government and the corporate sectors, for this transformative journey. 

The upcoming visit by Finance Minister Suzuki signifies an important milestone in fortifying bilateral relations and advancing Sri Lanka’s economic prospects through collaborative efforts between the two countries. Among the engagements scheduled for Minister Suzuki in Colombo is a call on President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The visit by the Japanese Finance Minister to Sri Lanka, after a lapse of more than ten years, is in continuance of bilateral consultations on Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process and efforts to reinvigorate economic cooperation between the two countries.

Several important visits in the past eight months pave the way for renewed efforts for the expansion of cooperation in multiple sectors.  Following President Wickremesinghe’s visit to Tokyo in May 2023, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi travelled to Colombo in July 2023, the first such high-level visit from Japan in more than four years.