President Sri Lanka admitted Monday that he made a mistake that caused the worst economic crisis in the country in decades and promised to fix it.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the entrance ticket while talking to 17 new cabinet ministers, he pointed on Monday when he and his strong family tried to resolve the political crisis produced from a terrible economic country.
Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy, with almost USD 7 billion from a total of USD 25 billion foreign debt because of this year’s payment. Lack of severe foreign currency exchange means the country does not have money to buy imported goods.
People have covered several months of essential deficiency such as food, gas cooking, fuel and medicine, marching hours to buy very limited shares available.
For the past two and a half years we have a big challenge. Pandemic Covid-19, and debt burden, and some mistakes on our side,” Rajapaksa said.
They must be fixed. We have to fix it and move forward. We need to regain people’s trust.”
He said the government should approach international monetary funds from the start to face the upcoming debt crisis and should not ban chemical fertilizers in an effort to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. The critics said the prohibition of imported fertilizers was aimed at preserving the ownership of the country’s foreign exchange and very injured by farmers.The government is also blamed for taking a big loan for infrastructure projects that have not brought money.
Today, people are under great pressure because of this economic crisis. I really regret this situation,” Rajapaksa said, adding that pain, discomfort, and anger displayed by people who were forced to wait in a long line for Get important items with high prices justified.
The promise of the cabinet followed several weeks of protests for the shortage of fuel and food and demanded that his strong political family and his government resigned.
Many public anger has been directed at Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They lead the influential clan that has strength for most of the past two decades.
Thousands of protesters occupied the entrance to the President’s office for 10 days on Monday.
The president and the prime minister remained in the office, but some of the other relatives lost their cabinet seat in what was seen as an attempt to calm the protesters without escaping from power.
Many senior politicians and those who face allegations of corruption are removed from the new cabinet in line with the call for younger administration, even though the Minister of Finance and foreign affairs maintain their position to help economic recovery.
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