colombo English news | colombo, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

Colombo, April 14 Suffered by economic crisis with inflation and dried foreign reserves, Sri Lanka's ailing healthcare with major shortage of some of the most essential and life-savings drugs, India has once again come to the rescue of the island nation.The Sri Lankan government has admitted that orders on medicines and equipment could not be placed as it failed to open Letter of Credit (LoC) due to the financial crisis."As a solution to the current crisis, firstly LoCs to obtain medicines and medicinal equipment, could be opened using India's credit line," Director General of the Department of Government Information, Mohan Samaranayake, said.India, Sri Lanka's closest neighbour had offered $1 billion credit line to purchase fuel, food and medicines. Since January India has provided nearly $2.5 billion financial assistance.Sri Lanka has also received $10 million from the World Bank to purchase medicines, Samaranayake added."In addition discussions are continuing to get aids or medicines from the World Health Organisation and Asian Development Bank. As a further measure, Sri Lankan heath authorities and the health trade unions have urged Sri Lankans living expatriates," the DG Information said.Economic and political crisis leading to health disaster, Sri Lanka is facing an acute shortage of some of the life-saving drugs, specially used for cardiac, cancer and kidney patients.A few days ago neonatologists appealed for the urgent medical supplies to save newborn infants in the emergency care.The World Bank, which has given $10 million for urgent medical supplies, on Wednesday announced Sri Lanka's economic outlook is highly uncertain due to the fiscal and external imbalances."Urgent policy measures are needed to address the high levels of debt and debt service, reducethe fiscal deficit, restore external stability, and mitigate the adverse impacts on the poor and vulnerable, says the World Bank in its twice-a-year regional update," World Bank said."The World Bank is deeply concerned about the uncertain economic outlook in Sri Lanka andthe impact on people," said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Maldives,Nepal and Sri Lanka."We are working on providing emergency support for poor and vulnerable households to help them weather the economic crisis and we remain committed to the well-being of the people of Sri Lanka, and to a narrative of sustainable and inclusive growth that will require concerted and collective action," he added.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

ColomboFOLLOW

Colombo, Latest News

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday urged the Central government to allow the state government to ship essential commodities from Thoothukudi port to the Sri Lankan Tamils as the island country is going through an unprecedented economic cri ...

Chennai, April 15 With the Indian government enabling shipping of food and essential items to Sri Lanka, Tamil ... ...

Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi (Hou) shared her views on the bilateral cooperation between Beijing and Kathmandu under the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and said that Nepal should become a "demonstration garden" for friendly cooperat ...

Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims gathered at Galle Face Green, the main beachfront in the capital Colombo, outside Sri Lankan President's secretariat and raised 'Go Gota Go' slogans and also held President Gotabaya Rajapaksa responsible for the country ...

Sri Lanka's Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), plans to hold a massive public march next week to support the public in ousting the current government. ...

The programme will be inaugurated in the presence of president SAFOG, Colombo, Sri Lanka Dr Rohana Haththotuwa, founder ... ...

Colombo, April 14 Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government is ready to hold discussions ... ...

Colombo, April 14 Suffered by economic crisis with inflation and dried foreign reserves, Sri Lanka's ailing healthcare with ... ...