As tourism sector stakeholders are adopting measures to stay afloat, authorities have been capitalising on the time available to chart out comprehensive plans that aim at redefining the industry in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak that has dealt a crippling blow to the travel and tourism sector globally.
Over 50,000 Sri Lankan migrant workers stranded mainly in the Gulf countries are anxiously awaiting to return to the country amid health risks, job losses and pay cuts caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the latest reports.
As Sri Lanka’s early but extreme actions to contain the spread of the new coronavirus is bearing fruit and the government is contemplating on reopening the economy by at least from May or even before, the pandemic could easily alter the country’s strategic economic focus to food security and agriculture and such sectors would attract revived attention in the coming decade, according to Softlogic Capital PLC.
Essential goods being taken to wholesalers in Pettah during curfew hours yesterday. The government announced that the curfew in Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam and Kandy districts will continue to be in effect until further notice. Pic by Pradeep Pathirana
Sri Lanka’s apparel sector is crumbling further as the prolonged curfew in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak, has placed the industry at a disadvantage with buyers choosing to divert orders to competitors due to lack of clarity as to when operations would resume.
Sri Lanka should engage with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and explore other debt inflows to the country to retain the investor confidence on the economy as the selling rate of the US dollar crossed Rs.200 for the first time in the country’s history, leading economists in the country urge the government.
Despite the negative growth largely expected for the first quarter, the Central Bank does not think the coronavirus pandemic will completely decimate the economy beset by the lockdowns and would still be able to register at least 3.0 percent growth for 2020.
The banking and financial services industry will kick off a number of efforts starting this week to push the country towards embracing digital transaction methods, a decision that was collectively taken by the sector together with the Central Bank to allow citizens to have easy and improved access to goods and services during curfew.
The Colombo Tea Auction, the world’s oldest operational and largest single-origin tea auction, plans to conduct its next auction for the first time on an e-platform, aiming to avoid public gathering, to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
The government has requested all Board of Investment (BOI) companies to pay the March and April salaries of their employees despite measures taken to shut down some idling factories and send their workers who were stranded since curfew was imposed, home. The government and the BOI later this week decided to temporarily close down the idling factories of the zones, whose businesses had been totally disrupted but permitted others to continue to en
Emirates ground crews around the world have bid farewell to their last operating flights back to Dubai. EK 005 to London Heathrow, which departed at 1605hrs on March 24 was the last flight to take off from Dubai. EK 262 from Sao Paulo, which landed at 2235hrs (local time) was the last flight to arrive on March 25 into Dubai.
The government has notified the public not to unnecessarily stock goods during the period the curfew is lifted, as there are ample stocks available in the market. Picture shows essential food items being unloaded at Sathosa outlets in Gampaha yesterday. Pic by Kushan S. Pathiraja
As Sri Lanka is witnessing its economy coming to an almost stagnant state due to the unavoidable measures taken by the government to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, a leading economist in the country stressed the priorities of the political leadership should be ensuring the best for the people over all other things.
Central Bank, Governor, Prof. W. D. Lakshman requests the financial institutions not to overreact to current disruptions to the economy amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, while urging the banking sector to pass the benefit of the recent policy rate cuts to their customers.
In preparation to prevent coronavirus (COVID-19) entering the country from ships at ports, Sri Lanka Navy conducted a drill at the Colombo port on Friday. The Navy conducted the drill to rehearse the Standard Operational Procedure that could be adopted in the event of transferring a suspected COVID-19 contracted patient from a ship to the relevant hospital ashore and quarantining a particular area on land
Sri Lanka’s apparel sector has presented a paper assessing the possible impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the industry, which also contained proposed measures that would help safeguard the small and medium-sized industry players.
The local apparel sector, following a series of stakeholder consultations, has assessed that the immediate revenue loss for the industry due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in China would be about US $ 510 million, which amounts to approximately a month’s value of apparel exports.
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