A time to put off times of trouble

TIME is a funny thing that way. To a sad and lonely old man, sitting on a park bench next to a pretty energetic girl is but a few achingly fleeting moments.

- By Wijith DeChickera

But to the lass it may seem like an unbearable lifetime. No less a savant than lateral thinker and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein discovered the truth about this for himself.

One doesn't have to be a genius such as the genial giant of quantum physics to figure out the chemistry of such attraction and attrition. But the object lesson here is more about the flexibility of time as it seems to pass that is the point.

For Sri Lanka, that time between now and the end of 2028 will pass more swiftly than it takes to say 'Ach, is ein seat occupied von anyone else, Fräulein?' But the beginning of the time of reckoning - re-starting repayment of sovereign debt may well convince the pretty lass that she could have better invested her time and energy in the interim than summertime flirtations.

That the Govt. - newbie at governance, tyro at fiscal management, untried and untested in many an arena, fresh to and on the ropes of finance-driven internationalism has a plan we've all taken on faith and taken for granted.

But does the action run to racking up exportsfunded forex reserves sufficient to start honouring our borrowings in international capital markets owed back and servicing the interest components thereof?

And how does all this square with the government's announcement this week that letters of credit (LOCs) to the tune of US$ 1.2 billion have been opened with a view to importing vehicles?

Six billion dollar nation

This in a milieu where the only recently beleaguered island nation's gross official reserves (GOR) - including a swap facility with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) - fluctuated around the US$ 6 billion mark over the past three to six months.