It is reported that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is preparing to take over the vacant post of Finance Minister.
It was said that Mahinda Rajapaksa would soon take over the ministry of finance again at the strong request of his family in a situation where no government MP would come forward to accept it.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister himself will take over the ministry post with the consent of the majority of the government.
Global asset managers including Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price Group could be staring down the risk of default in Sri Lanka in the face of a deepening economic crisis.
Fidelity Investments’ parent FMR LLC, Lord Abbett & Co. and T. Rowe Price Group were among the largest overseas holders of the island nation’s $12.6 billion in foreign debt, according to holdings most recently disclosed by investors in data compiled by Bloomberg. FMR held $114.3 million of the debt, Lord Abbett had about $78 million and T. Rowe owned $32.6 million, followed by Payden & Rygel and SEI Investments, the data show.
Sri Lanka’s investors are growing concerned about whether the country will be able to keep up on its foreign debt obligations as inflation and protests hit the family that’s ruled the nation with an iron fist for most of the last 15 years. Anger over hours-long power cuts and food and fuel shortages has spilled unto the streets, leading President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to replace his cabinet and appoint a new central bank head this week. The nation is also struggling with a cash crunch that’s triggered capital controls and import curbs.
Such global investors owned nearly 4% of the nation’s outstanding sovereign dollar debt, according to the latest available data via filings disclosed at different points in time. For Fidelity, for example, one of the most recent sources of data available is for an exchange-traded fund as of April 4, while some of the firm’s other funds last disclosed holdings on Feb. 28 or earlier.
Sri Lanka Default Seen ‘Inevitable’ as Bond Losses Deepen
“Recent unrest and political uncertainty mean any investor now is attempting to catch a falling knife,” said Charlie Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital Ltd. “We think most investors will wait on more political clarity and evidence of an IMF deal, which does improve recovery values, before taking the plunge into local assets.”
A spokesperson for Fidelity declined to comment on specific holdings, as did a spokesman for SEI. A spokesman at T. Rowe said Sri Lankan holdings accounted for 1% of its Emerging Market Bond Fund as of the end of 2021. Spokespeople for Lord Abbett and Payden & Rygel did not respond to requests for comment.
Source: Holdings disclosed by investors, compiled by Bloomberg
Note: Data is as-of latest filings, which range in date
The next key test for Sri Lanka’s bondholders will be on April 18, when the government must pay $36 million in interest on a bond maturing in 2023 and $42.2 million on a 2028 note, according to Bloomberg data. The government also has to pay $1.03 billion in principal and interest on a maturing note on July 25.
Sri Lankan debt slumped over the past years as cities were shuttered and tourism — the nation’s main industry — skidded to a halt. Dollar bonds due in July 2022 were indicated 2 cents on the dollar lower at 55.5 cents Wednesday morning.
The extra yield investors demand to hold Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt, on average, over U.S. Treasuries have widened to 29.99 percentage points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. data, well above the 10-percentage point threshold for distressed debt.
Bloomberg’s search for top holders includes holdings of passive funds, such as ETFs, which have little choice in what they buy or sell. It’s also worth noting that Bloomberg’s data doesn’t necessarily include holdings by investors that aren’t required to disclose their debt transactions.
Bloomberg
The UK, US, and Australia will begin co-operating on research into hypersonic weapons and how to defend against them, the government has said.
The programme will be part of the AUKUS partnership, a security pact announced by the three countries last year.
It follows the development of hypersonic missiles by China and Russia and their purported use by Russia in Ukraine last month.
Hypersonic weapons are those that exceed five times the speed of sound.
They are harder to defend against because of their speed as well as the fact they fly at low altitudes – beyond the line of sight of ground-based radars – and can manoeuvre mid-flight.
The UK does not currently possess hypersonic missiles.The US and Australia have an existing joint programme to develop the weapons but the UK government stressed the focus of the new venture would be on defence.
It said there were no plans for the UK to develop its own hypersonic weapons but the new programme would help it assess whether it would need to develop them in future.
It added the latest announcement was not related to Russia’s use of the weapons in Ukraine but said the fact other nations were investing in them meant the UK had to think about how to defend against them.
On 19 March, Russia claimed to have used a hypersonic missile to destroy an arms depot in western Ukraine, and US military intelligence has suggested Russian forces have used them repeatedly since.
The attacks would mark the first use of hypersonic missiles in combat.
Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Bangladesh said that profound historical and cultural relations have lasted between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and it is time to deepen the economic cooperation between the two countries. High Commissioner Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne highlighted the idea at a meeting held with the President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Jashim Uddin in Dhaka on 3 April 2022.
Both the High Commissioner and the President discussed the necessity of diversifying export baskets of the two countries and the importance of finalizing the proposed Preferential Trading Agreement (PTA) which is presently under negotiation.
The possibilities of strengthening cooperation in the field of trade, tourism, shipping, energy, investment, agriculture, healthcare and education were also discussed. The High Commissioner described the initiatives which were taken by the High Commission to promote the focus areas and requested the cooperation of FBCCI in implementing the proposed initiatives while engaging in active economic cooperation.
FBCCI President Uddin stated that the Federation and the business communities have a high level of interest towards the proposed Preferential Trade Agreement and economic cooperation between the countries could be further strengthened through the proposed PTA. He agreed to extend the cooperation of FBCCI to deepen the economic cooperation with Sri Lanka.
The High Commissioner invited a business delegation of FBCCI to visit Sri Lanka at a mutually convenient time and the FBCCI President together with other officials welcomed the idea of the High Commissioner and stated that a delegation would be organized in due course.
The First Secretary (Commercial) of the High Commission of Sri Lanka Srimali Jayarathna participated in the discussion.
Investigative journalists know that every administration has its deal-makers. And one of the mysteries of the Yahapalana govt is the #Hambantota Silver Park project.
March 6, 2019: Cabinet approved Malik Samarawickrama’s memo to lease out 400 acres in Hambantota for a petroleum refinery as a joint venture between Silver Park International (Pvt) Ltd, Singapore, and the Ministry of Oil & Gas of Sultanate of Oman.
It was said Accord and Omani Ministry signed the US$ 3.8bn deal to build a 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery in 44 months. Even Chinese investment into Port City stopped at US$ 1.4bn while China Merchants Port Holdings spent US$ 1.12bn to lease and manage the Hambantota port.
The details were sketchy. And, on March 20, Oman’s Oil Ministry DENIED being part of the $3.85 billion plan, even after Sri Lanka announced its involvement.
On March 21, Sri Lanka’s BOI admitted there was NO agreement with Oman’s Ministry of Oil and Gas. “However, we’re aware that Oman Oil Company has registered their firm intention to participate in equity up to 30%, subject to reaching agreement between the parties”.
March 22: Meera Srinivasan broke the story that stakes in the deal’s Singapore-based company were held by a family member of former Union Minister of State, the DMK’s S Jagathrakshakan.
The Indian address of the couple was 1, 1st Main Road, Kasturibai Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020, Tamil Nadu. This is where the Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, started by Mr Jagathrakshan, is located.
Samarawickrama told Cabinet it’s our largest FDI to date. Even before Oman had agreed, he claimed: “The investment is from a Singapore registered company and the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Sultanate of Oman is one of the equity participants with 30% equity.”
Cabinet papers pointed to 2 other prospective investors, including a Chinese party that had dropped out. The other, from Sugih Energy International, “is being pursued and will initiate upon allocation of initial plots of land, most probably in March 2019”.
So now there were TWO projects: Silver Park and Sugih International. Samarawickrama told Cabinet a joint memorandum seeking approval for incentives for both will be submitted in due course.
March 25: Omani Oil and Gas Minister arrives for ground-breaking ceremony of the Hambantota refinery. Mohammed Hamal Al Rumhy also met Ranil Wickremesinghe, then PM. But a spox said it was a “courtesy call” and that the Minister had shown “general interest in Sri Lanka”.
The spox also confirmed to @timesonline that the Omani Government had not invested any funds, nor agreed to invest any money so far on the project, but was awaiting the feasibility report to take a decision.
The project’s “main promoter” was interviewed saying discussions with the“$7bn assets-rich Accord Group Chief Jagathrakshakan “had begun as far back as October 2015”.
Mohammed Riyas said had it not been for the delay in releasing the land, “the multiple benefits accruing exports-oriented project would have been commissioned by now”.
On November 14, 2019—two days before the Presidential Election when it was prohibited to enter into such contracts—the BOI signed an agreement with Sugih International for a US$ 24bn oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Hambantota.
The total investment of both: US$ 27.8bn. But there were no feasibility studies, no partners, no environmental impact assessments, no basis for the massive figures cited, no Omanis, just preliminary proposals and, in the case of Sugih, an “agreement”.
Nothing came through. When @timesonline filed a request in early 2020 under the Right to Information Act to determine the status of the project, the BOI issued a blanket refusal saying there was ongoing Criminal Investigation Department inquiry into the Silver Park project.
Mohammed Riyas, the promoter, told us that he has “no comment” on the project. Danny Lee, the Sugih International Director who signed the second agreement, was contacted via personal email (he appears to have changed workplaces) and did not reply.
Namini Wijedasa
Chinese authorities have extended their lockdown of Shanghai to cover all its 25 million people after a fresh surge in Covid cases.
Initially, there had been separate measures for the eastern and western sides, but the whole city is now subject to indefinite restrictions.
Shanghai is the largest single city to be locked down to date.
The important financial hub has battled a new wave of coronavirus infections for more than a month.
Reported cases have risen to more than 13,000 a day, although the numbers are not high by some international standards.
Residents in some areas of the city said the strict policy meant no-one was allowed to leave their housing compounds, not even to collect essential provisions.
They reported difficulties in ordering food and water online, with restrictions on when customers are able to place their orders, because of a shortage of supplies and delivery staff.
This country’s “zero-Covid” system is, at best, struggling to cope.
China has done Covid lockdowns before, but not on the scale of its financial mega-city.
The logistical challenges required to confine 25 million people to their homes, while keeping them fed, are huge.
Social media here is full of angry residents complaining that they can’t order food because the delivery system is clogged up.
Centralised isolation facilities – many using only camp beds, with no showers or other facilities – are bursting with infected people squashed in next to one another.
One of China’s few reliable media outlets, Caixin, has reported that close contacts of infected people will be moved to neighbouring provinces. This could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents.
The Chinese government’s complete elimination strategy has become something of a mantra, with the government ridiculing other countries for sacrificing their own people on the altar of opening up.
Some medical specialists here have tried to get the message through that, for a vaccinated person, catching the Omicron variant of Covid will probably not necessitate going to hospital – that you can simply ride it out at home until you recover.
Few people in China seem to be aware of this. Their officials and state media have kept it from them.
BBC
Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an edit button that would allow users to change tweets after they have been posted.
It comes after new board member, Tesla boss Elon Musk, asked his followers in a Twitter poll whether they wanted the feature.
Many users have long called for an edit button but there are concerns about how to execute it.
Twitter said it would start testing the idea in the coming months.
The social media firm’s communications team tweeted: “Now that everyone is asking… yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!
“No, we didn’t get the idea from a poll ,” it added.
“We’re kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.”
Users of Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service, get early access to features it is testing.
Under an edit function users would be able to fix typos or errors in a tweet without losing any replies, retweets or likes it has already gained.
Jay Sullivan, the company’s vice president of consumer product, said it had been “the most requested Twitter feature for many years” in a thread on Tuesday.
BBC
Gnanakka: the notorious Soothsayer from the dry zone of Sri Lanka has advised the government according to some SLPP sources that to somehow hangin till the 13 th of April and the problems will go away. Protesting will stop and USD will rain like water to Sri Lanka.
So according to sources government has decided once again to follow the advice of the the heavily guarded Soothsayer using tax payers money and play with parliament.
Soon holidays will come and parliament will go into recess and the opposition MPs will travel overseas or go to Yala to watch elephants and leopards .Gnanakka Is a trusted confidant of Gotabaya ever since he took power in 2019. The President travels to Anuradhapura for advice and poojas to ward off evil spirits.
If true Only God can save Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has decided to reject a request made by the President during a discussion between the President and the SLFP Parliamentary Group yesterday (05).
The President has said that since the Sri Lanka Freedom Party should be in the cabinet, they should take over the ministry again.
However, they have stated that this is not possible at the moment and that they will support any process which will bring about the abolition of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution,and the executive presidency.
At present 42 ruling party MPs are independent.
A heated situation has occurred in the parliament today.
Although a special debate is scheduled to be held today and tomorrow on the current crisis in the country, it has been more than an hour and a half since Parliament convened, but it has not yet been able to begin a proper debate.
Apart from the current crisis in the country, special attention was paid to the person who was wearing a helmet and got into Leader of the Jathika Jana Balawegaya Anura Dissanayake’s Cab when it came out of Parliament yesterday.
Although Vijitha Herath stated in Parliament today that he was a member of the JVP who was under the protection of his leader, the ruling party members strongly requested the Speaker to conduct an investigation into that person and ensure the security of other Ministers and MPs.
Opposition members were chanting slogans at the parliament and the Speaker adjourned the House.