Greece, long the problem child of the eurozone, took a major step on Wednesday toward securing financial independence as it prepares to wean itself off the international bailouts that have kept it afloat for the last eight years.

The government’s announcement of a bond swap could help ease a staggering debt burden that at one point threatened to push Greece out of the eurozone. The swap is intended to shore up confidence for next summer, when the country at long last stops receiving international financial aid that will by then total 326 billion euros, or about $380 billion.

The announcement came after Greece successfully sold bonds on the international markets in July. That sale, the first after a five-year hiatus, was part of a broader effort to illustrate the country’s continuing recovery from troubles that stemmed from the financial crisis that began on Wall Street nearly a decade ago.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras yearns for the day he is able to regularly sell Greek bonds to foreign investors, thus cutting the country’s ties to financial lifelines. That would also have the effect of helping persuade the European Central Bank to buy Greek bonds as part of its huge regional stimulus program — something the bank has refused to do for years — and further improve Greece’s finances.