- Former Education Minister and Finance Deputy Minister S B Dissanayake says Dr P B Jayasundera and Ajith Nivard Cabraal would have steered Sri Lanka through the 2022 economic crisis if they were given an year to implement their strategies without interruption: also says the Treasury Secretary and CB Governor/State Minister duo had navigated the Sri Lanka economy through many crises during the period 2006 to 2014 and grew the GDP from USD 20 bn to USD 79 bn during that period.
- Representatives of university academics, bankers, engineers, doctors and other professionals from 47 Trade Unions assemble at the President’s Office and seek a meeting with the President’s Secretary: demand a response to their request that the recently imposed taxes be reduced and redress be granted from the negative effects of the IMF programme.
- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with PM Dinesh Gunawardene at a International Forum in Kumming, China: says China will help Sri Lanka to effectively address the challenge of financial debt.
- Environmentalists claim that organised groups have deliberately set fire to over 25,000 acres of forests around the country this year in order to encroach forest land.
- President Ranil Wickremesinghe says education in Sri Lanka will have to change drastically to fit into the future: also says Chinese, Hindi & English must be learnt by children in order to fit into the changing world: asserts that students in schools will also have to pursue their education through mobile phones and podcasts.
- Public Utilities Commission grants approval for the Ceylon Electricity Board to procure 100Mw of generation capacity on a short term basis for a period of 6 months from 18August’23: the Electricity Consumers’ Association claims that numerous irregularities are likely to occur in the proposed emergency power purchase process and that they intend to bring that to the notice of the relevant parties, including the PUC and the Opposition.
- A group of SJB MPs together with MPs from other parties initiate a move to bring MPs of all parties to form a joint group to be titled the “MPs Guild for Economic Justice’: the group is expected to make an announcement next week.
- Primary Dealer company First Capital Holdings announces that it’s profits for the quarter ending 30June’23 has jumped to a phenomenal Rs.2,810 mn, from a mere Rs.96 mn last year: a 29-times increase: Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has repeatedly claimed that Primary Dealers had made exceptional profits as a result of the Domestic Debt Re-structuring, while the EPF and other superannuation funds were made to suffer massive losses.
- State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe asserts that receiving the 2nd tranche of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility will portray a positive image of the economy in the future to foreign and local investors: also says the economy is on the right path and a ‘very reasonable’ stabilisation will be seen by Dec’23.
- National Water Supply and Drainage Board urges the public to use water sparingly: also says the overall daily purified water supply capacity has decreased by 9%: the water supply to Kurunegala city to be limited from today.
Sri Lanka Original Narrative Summary: 18/08
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