The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to monitor the progress of the passengers of Sri Lankan origin who were rescued and brought to the Port of Vung Tau in Viet Nam on 08 November 2022.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Sri Lanka Navy that they had received information about a vessel carrying approximately 303 persons believed to be Sri Lankans which was in distress in the waters between the Philippines and Viet Nam on 07 November 2022. The Sri Lanka Navy, having contacted the vessel, informed that the crew had abandoned the vessel with the passengers onboard.

On the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Missions in the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam together with the regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers (MRCC) based in Singapore, the rescue efforts were coordinated.

Subsequently, the Japanese-flagged vessel, “Helios Leader”, having been contacted by the Singapore MRCC, rescued the passengers from the distressed vessel. The passengers were handed over to Viet Nam authorities at Vung Tau Port in South Viet Nam.

The screening of the passengers will be done by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in coordination with the Viet Nam authorities and the Sri Lanka Embassy in Viet Nam.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to work closely with the Sri Lanka Missions in the Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam and IOM for early repatriation, once the screening process to ascertain their nationality and other formalities are completed.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo

09 November,  2022

Sagara Kariyawasam, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, says that Basil Rajapaksa will remove his dual citizenship and run for elections if necessary.

Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and Chief of Staff of the President Sagala Ratnayake recalled that Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank (WB) Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka was amazed by the action policy and the vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe which was revealed during their meeting recently.

The WB Country Director also expressed his willingness to support President Wickremesinghe’s vision. “The president’s vision for the country includes some measures that go beyond what the IMF or WB has stipulated. His vision is actually far ahead than this sphere,” Ratnayake said.

He emphasized the importance of getting everyone together to work hard on developing the road map and sticking to the timelines to get the best final report at the end of the next two weeks.

He also said that this is the best opportunity for the country to stabilize economically, to have a solid policy framework and to go into the road map that is needed. “As a country, we have that potential and request everyone to make maximum use of it,” Ratnayake added.

Rathnayake made these remarks while speaking at the World Bank Budget support and Development Policy Operation (DPO) Preparatory Mission kick-off meeting between the government officials and the members of the World Bank which took place yesterday morning (Nov. 08) at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe.

The discussed development policy operations, which provide direct budget support to governments for policy and institutional reforms, are aimed at achieving a set of specific development results.

These operations were designed under three pillars such as transforming Economic governance, enhancing growth & competitiveness and protecting the poor and vulnerable to provide rapid financial assistance to allow Sri Lanka to deal with actual or anticipated development financing requirements.

Lengthy discussions were held with the WB team on improving debt management and transparency, improving fiscal oversight, improving tax administration policy, increasing public procurement transparency and value for money, severing the sovereign-financial sector nexus, improving stewardship of the financial sector and reducing systemic risk.

They also focused on reforming and enhancing oversights of SOEs, reducing the anti-export bias of national tariff policy and elite capture, eliminating barriers to foreign investment, making energy and transport sector less dependent on imported fuels and more climate-friendly, and strengthening social protection institutions, delivery systems, and targeting.

Sri Lanka has temporarily suspended accepting applications for passports, said the country’s Department of Immigration and Emigration as the economic crisis continues to tighten its grip on the island nation.

The acceptance of passport applications is halted due to a result of computer system malfunction.

As per the report, the services were affected on Tuesday due to the breakdown in the computer system of the Immigration and Emigration Department.

The Department had appealed to the people to not visit the head office of the Sri Lankan Department of Immigration and Emigration for non-essential services considering the breakdown.

The Department announced that it has suspended accepting applications for passports as the country’s finance minister said that Colombo will have to endure the worst economic crisis and warned of an imminent cash crunch.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration says that the issuance of passports has temporarily been suspended due to a breakdown in the computer system for the third time this year.

Asimilar break down in the computer system was reported in May this year sparking public protests as the large number of people had been asked to visit the passport office some other day.

Accordingly, the relevant department announces that it has suspended issuing passports via all regional offices including the Head Office of the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration has suspended accepting applications for passports until the system is restored.

As a result of this, a heated situation had reportedly occurred in front of the Immigration Department this afternoon as a large number of people who had arrived to obtain their passports had voiced their protest.

However, the officials of the department and police officers had then arrived and explained the situation and sent them away.

The health department says that a second case of Monkeypox has been reported from Sri Lanka.

He is also a person who came to this country from the state of Dubai and it is said that he has been hospitalized.

The first case of monkey fever in Sri Lanka was reported on November 4.

State Minister for Power and Energy D.V. Chanaka says that according to the current price, the government will incur a loss of 12 rupees per liter of diesel.

The Minister of State stated this while replying to the questions raised by Jana Balavegaya Member of Parliament Hesha Withanage regarding the fuel price formula in Parliament today (09).

Sagala Ratnayake, President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Head of Presidential Staff, said that Ranil Wickramasinghe’s vision for building the country is exceeding IMF/WB stipulations.

Sagala Ratnayake expressed these views yesterday (08) in the morning of the President’s Office during the meeting between government officials and World Bank members to start the World Bank Budget Support and Development Policy Operation (DPO).

Pointing out that this is the best opportunity to stabilize the country economically, establish a strong policy framework and go to the required road map, Ratnayake said that we as a country have that ability and we request everyone to make the most of it.

Ratnayake also pointed out the importance of getting the final report related to the preparation of the policy framework at the end of the next two weeks, preparation of the road map and everyone’s commitment according to the time frame.

Minister of State for Finance Shehan Semasinghe mentioned that President Ranil Wickremesinghe is committed to stabilizing the country’s economy and for that the President has taken very difficult decisions.

Faris Hadad-Zervos, Director of the World Bank for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, said that he is amazed at the active policy and vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe for the country and the World Bank is working to support it.

The objectives of this discussion are to achieve a specific set of development outcomes through development policy operations that provide direct budgetary support to governments for policy and institutional restructuring.

These operations have been planned under three points namely, provision of rapid financial assistance, transformation of financial governance, and enhancement of competitiveness to enable it to deal with expected development finance needs.

Debt management and transparency, financial supervision, improving tax administration policy, public procurement transparency as well as increasing the value of money, delinking the sovereign financial sector and reducing systemic risk were discussed at length.

Reform and improve oversight of state-owned enterprises, reduce anti-export bias in national tariff policy, remove barriers to foreign investment, reduce energy and transport sector dependence on imported fuels, make more climate-friendly, social security institutions, distribution Strengthening and targeting of the system were also discussed.

Minister of State for Social Empowerment Women and Child Affairs Anupa Paskuwal, President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake, World Bank Local Manager Chio Kanda and members of the World Bank team and officials of line agencies attended the event.

Sri Lanka is now severely feeling the pinch of controversial declaration of preemptive debt default hinting the country’s bankruptcy made by the Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe on April 12 as the finance ministry engagement of creditors debt on restructuring process dragging on without any positive results.

The Central Bank’ monetary board is currently compelled to reconsider the revising of present extremely high interest rates which are unsustainable and a threat to all businesses in every industry, especially considering the many difficulties of operating businesses during this economic crisis, several eminent economists said.

President Ranil Wickremasinghe is now bravely facing the repercussions of the decisions taken by the Central Bank in accordance with its Monetary Board consent.

President Wickremasinghe shouldering the gigantic task of correcting the wrong ill advice and back firing actions of high handed arrogant officials’ who misled all previous regimes in collaboration with corrupt ministers in those regimes.

However this not the time of blaming and shaming for past deeds as the the government has an urgent responsibility to tackle the the man made economic crisis and direct the ill-fated economy towards a corrective path, patriotic group of government officials claimed.

Expressing his concerns about the need to ensure sufficient steps to wipe out the mal-effects arising out of the self- declared Label of Bankruptcy, the President who is also the country’s Finance Minister has already spelled out his package of plans to resolve the current issues according priority to conserve foreign exchange and limit imports emphasizing that it did not work initially but ok now.

He also stated that as the revenue is dried up, measures have to be taken to increase revenue and this too is in the scope of the plans envisaged.

The controversial “debt default” announcement on 12 April 2022 pushed the country into default, and it is seriously suspicious as to why that was done when the “pipeline of inflows” at that time amounted to $ 10.7 billion without the necessary formal approvals.

Sri Lanka is now facing frightful repercussions of defaulting sovereign forex loans which led to the loss of the credibility and Investors shun that country.

The defaulting country cannot obtain new forex loans thereafter. Access to International Bond Markets is lost.

The banking system is placed under pressure. Banks face serious difficulties when opening letters of credit and doing forex transactions. Forex loans and investments are halted. Local firms doing business overseas face hardships. Most forex-funded infrastructure Projects halted.

Foreign Direct Investors adopt a “wait and see” attitude. Small and medium sized import-based businesses and entrepreneurs face the risk of collapse.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs and livelihoods are in jeopardy. Inflation and interest rates rise. The Government is compelled to sell valuable state assets. Forex creditors institute legal action to recover their dues. The Government incurs huge litigation costs and experiences “black-listing”.