Maldives’ parliament speaker and former president Nasheed on Tuesday, renewed his call for deferment of state loans due for the next year. The comment came when the parliament was discussing a report by the whole house committee, reported by Sun media. 

“For the Maldivian government to tell countries and banks that we won’t be able to pay the amount when the time comes next year. And for all our creditors to therefore come to us to discuss this. The banks come once such an announcement is made,” Sun quoted Nasheed as saying. 

As per the loan repayment schedule, Maldives is expected to pay $466 million by the next year, Nasheed said. Pushing the government for loan deferments, Nasheed said, he doesn’t think that the Chinese banks would come here to seize assets. The world in the 21st century doesn’t work like that, he added. 

Earlier also, Nasheed had suggested the government that pushing lenders for deferment on payment as the best option in the prevailing economic scenario. 

“We have many bilateral partners, many financial institutions we can talk to, regarding this,” Nasheed said expressing his confidence over the Maldives government in achieving this goal. 

He said, we just need to tell banks and countries about our inability to pay loans by next year, in that case, lenders will surely come to discuss the issue.