Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa admits mistakes led to economic crisis
Sri Lankan president recognized on Monday he made mistakes that led the worst economic crisis in the country in decades and committed to correct them.President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made admission while he talks with 17 new cabinet ministers that he appointed on Monday, since he and the powerful family of him seek to solve a political crisis resulting from the economic state of the country.
Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy, with almost USD 7 billion of its total USD 25 billion in external debt due to reimbursement this year. A serious shortage of currencies means that the country lacks money to buy imported products.People have endured months of scarcity of essential elements such as food, cooking gases, fuel and medicine, aligning for hours to buy very limited stocks available. During the last two and a half years we have had vast challenges. “The Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the burden of debt, and some errors on our part,” said Rajapaksa.
“They need to be rectified, we have to correct them and move forward, we need to recover the trust of people.”He said that the government should have approached the International Monetary Fund at the beginning of aid to face the imminent crisis of debt and should not have banned chemical fertilizer forbidden in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture completely organic. Critics say that the prohibition of imported fertilizer aimed to preserve the decrease in currency holdings of the country and poorly injured farmers.
It also blames the government to draw great loans for infrastructure projects that have not brought any money “Today, people are under immense pressure due to this economic crisis, I deeply regret this situation,” said Rajapaksa, and added that the pain, discomfort and anger shown by people forced to wait in long ranks for Obtain essential articles at high prices is justified. The appointments of the cabinet follow weeks of protests on the shortage of fuel and food and demands that Rajapaksa, the politically powerful family of him and the government of him resign.
It has been a lot of public anger in Rajapaksa and the older brother of him, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They make an influential clan that has maintained power during most of the last two decades.Thousands of protesters occupied the entrance to the President’s office for one day 10 on Monday.The President and the Prime Minister remain in office, but some other relatives lost their cabinet seats in what was seen as an attempt to pacify the protesters without renouncing the power of the power of the family.
Many main politicians and those who face the arguments of corruption were excluded from the new cabinet according to the summons of a younger administration, although the ministers of finance and foreign affairs retained their positions to help with an economic recovery.Most of the cabinet resigned on April 3 after the protests exploded throughout the country and the protesters assaulted and vandalized the houses of some cabinet ministers.The opposition parties rejected an offer from President Rajapaksa to form a government of unity with him and his brother who remains in power. Parts of the opposition have failed, meanwhile, to obtain a parliamentary majority.
Last week, the government said that it was suspending the reimbursement of foreign loans pending talks with the International Monetary Fund. The Minister of Finance, Ali Sabry and the officials left for conversations with the IMF on Sunday. The IMF and the World Bank have annual meetings in Washington this week.Sri Lanka has also become China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel.
