21 October 2023 04:59 am Views - 403
It never rains but pours, the age-old adage goes. On April 21, 2019, terrorists carried out a heinous attack on innocents at three churches and tourist hotels in Sri Lanka. The attack killed over 250 civilians and included a number of foreigners. The tourist industry which had just begun to raise its head in the aftermath of the ethnic conflict took a hard hit.
Central Bank records reveal tourist arrivals per day, which averaged around 7,600 during 2019 prior to the attacks, dropped significantly to around 1,700 during the two months after the attacks. This was closely followed by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first case of the virus in Sri Lanka was confirmed on January 27, 2020. Subsequently, the country went into lockdown effectively closing the doors to tourism as a whole. It also resulted in ending remittances of foreign workers.
Earnings of expatriate workers form the largest slice of our foreign earnings
Tourism is the third-largest source of foreign exchange earnings -behind worker remittances and the apparel industry. Earnings from tourism which amounted to US dollars 44,381 million in 2018 dropped to $3,607 million in 2019 and fell to $ 682 million by 2020.
Facing a shortfall in hard currency, in April 2021, then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced a ban on the import of agrochemicals. A middle-rank military man with no practical knowledge of running a country, he little realized he was killing off agricultural production, while at the same time killing another major foreign exchange earning sector -tea, coconut and rubber.
By April 12, 2022, with insufficient income to repay even interest on foreign loans amounting to US $34.8 billion, the country declared itself bankrupt. Basics such as fuel, cooking gas and medicines became unavailable. Lawlessness broke out and in July the then President fled the country.
Following the President fleeing, in July 2022 Wickremesinghe was sworn in as President of the country.
Within months of his assuming the Presidency Wickremesinghe was able to somewhat stabilise the food and fuel shortages. A debt restructuring agreement was reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the first tranche of funds was made available.
However, the bailout came at a cost. It calls for a cut in State subsidies, the divestiture of loss-making State-Owned Enterprises as well as a trimming down of staff.
These disciplines imposed by that organisation (IMF) heaped more burdens on the most vulnerable sectors of our society. For example, UNICEF has reported that 5.7 million people, including 2.3 million children, are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It means 1/4 of our population lives in hunger, and the cost of living is still rising.
Political parties in Opposition are calling for demonstrations against the rising cost of living and calling for a change in government.
Unfortunately, none of our political parties in Opposition has revealed to the electorate what they would do differently, to ease the pain of the people, while at the same time easing the country’s debt burden, if they were to be voted into power.
At this time our countrymen and women need to know definite plans of action our diverse political parties have if any.
We do not want to hear how they will bring money stolen by past leaders back to this country. We all know that this has never happened in any part of the world.
At one point in time, a particular political party suggested ripping up the tea plantations and replanting them with potatoes! Our people do not need such infantile proposals.
To create avenues of income you cannot start by decimating sources already bringing in precious exchange to the country.
Let our political parties put forward specific plans of exactly how they will ease the present burdens heaped on the people. Let them tell us how they plan to open up new sources of income to help repay our foreign debt and create employment.
But, let them not take you and me for fools who blindly believe whatever they shout from platforms and rooftops.