Sri Lanka, June 17 -- Sri Lanka would lay the groundwork for a self-reliant economy by 2028, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday, as the island nation works to break from cycles of economic fragility and external debt dependency.

"Our ultimate goal is to restore national sovereignty through economic stability and self-reliance," Dissanayake said in a keynote address at the international conference 'Sri Lanka's Road to Recovery: Debt and Governance', held in Colombo.

Hosted by the Finance Ministry, Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the forum brought together policymakers and global financial institutions to take stock of Sri Lanka's recovery under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility, its ongoing debt restruct...