10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. (Dr.) Harshana Suriyapperuma - Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning

24 February 2025 ·Procedural: Ministerial Statement: Prime Minister Response on Colombo Port and Digital Economy

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Deputy Minister Harshana Suriyapperuma responded to earlier inquiries by Hon. Ravi Karunanayake regarding the Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and the Regional Development Bank. He stated that the Government is discussing and will implement measures to reduce financing costs, particularly interest rates, for small and medium enterprises to support business expansion, new investment, market access and a production-oriented economic programme.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, Hon. Ravi Karunanayake previously raised inquiries from us regarding the Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and the Regional Development Bank. In responding, we stated that the current Government’s expectation is to provide facilities so that the financing cost can be moderated particularly for small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Through this, we aim to help business expansion, enable new investments, and help access new markets by reducing interest rates.

¶ 02 We have commenced discussions for that purpose. The program will be implemented. As you stated, our expectation too is to provide maximum possible relief on interest to SMEs for the implementation of our production-oriented economic program.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Monday, 24 February 2025 ·No. 1741236032093385 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Harshana Suriyapperuma - Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 24 February 2025. No. 1741236032093385. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/11669