Susitha Fernando Colombo : , December 28th, 2008 – Sri Lanka will close its three diplomatic missions abroad starting on December 31, in order to reduce government spending and the ongoing financial crisis.
According to the Foreign Ministry, it decided that three of its missions would be closed — the Consulate of Sri Lankan in Frankfurt, Germany; the Sri Lanka High Commission Abuja, Nigeria and the Consulate of Sri Lankan in Nicosia.
The Foreign Ministry explained that the restructuring was done to preserve the country’s foreign reserves, and to reduce expenditures related to maintaining Sri Lanka’s overseas missions.This is in light of the severe economic problems posed by global pandemic.
All activities related to the diplomatic missions will be handled by their neighbours.
The closing down of selected foreign missions will save almost Rs 11 billion, or $54 millions.
Sugeeshwara Gunaratne, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry had previously stated that this was a decision taken by the Sri Lankan Cabinet to address the crisis involving the US dollar.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its debt, many imports from abroad, including food and vehicles, were stopped.
Many measures have been taken by the central bank to bring US dollars into the country.The central bank ordered all banks in the country to pay 25 percent of the dollars they received Monday.
This represents an increase over the previous ceiling of 10% dollars that local banks received.
End of November saw Sri Lanka have only $1.58 Billion in foreign receipts.This was down from the $7.5 Billion received by President Goatabaya Rajapaksa’s government.
sfl/arm
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