Crisis-hit Sri Lanka invites Japan to resume investment

COLOMBO, July 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Saturday invited Japan to resume investment in projects including power, roads and ports as the Japanese foreign minister wrapped up the first high-level visit to the crisis-hit country in nearly four years.

Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said his country was seeking Japanese investment in sectors such as power, infrastructure and dedicated investment zones, as well as in the green and digital economies.

The South Asian island nation is working to restructure its massive debt to continue a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, after its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades last year triggered default and the resignation of its president.

“We are confident that Sri Lanka’s economic recovery, which has made a promising start, and future growth prospects will provide us with greater opportunities to enhance the Japan-Sri Lanka relationship,” Sabry told a news conference.

He was joined by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who is in Colombo as part of a multi-country diplomatic tour including India, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Maldives.

“I conveyed my expectations for further progress in the debt restructuring process and stressed the importance of a transparent and comparable debt restructuring that involves all creditor countries,” Hayashi said.