19 June 2020 12:00 am
By Lahiru Pothmulla
During a meeting held with Ambassadors of EU countries in Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said loans are not an option and what the country currently needs is new investments.
“Instead of further debt, Sri Lanka needs new investments,” he said adding Sri Lanka would benefit from a debt moratorium given the current situation.
The meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat was centered on rebuilding the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, the President’s Media Division said.
He said the country was able to quickly deploy the public health system to address the health threat caused by the pandemic.
“The Public Health Inspectors with the support of the Police and Security Forces were able to engage in contact tracing accurately. It was not only those who were infected but also the associates of the infected were also quarantined. These measures helped Sri Lanka to successfully combat the virus. The next concern is reviving the economy since the current growth rate is very low and the national debt is high,” he said.
To control this dire situation, the President said certain controls and restrictions on imports were needed.
“However, this does not mean Sri Lanka will be a closed economy,” he said.