Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Dinesh Gunawardena told an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Peter Breuer and Masahiro Nozaki that the country's social security net needs to be enhanced when an agreement is reached with the IMF.

In a press statement released on Sunday, the Prime Minister's Media Division said the country is facing the biggest economic and social crisis since independence.

The prime minister told the IMF delegation that Sri Lanka has taken steps to cut down on imports and boost exports.

COLOMBO, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Sri Lanka reported nearly 50,000 cases of dengue, in the first eight months of this year, according to the National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU).

Local media, quoting the NDCU yesterday said that, 49,941 people have been admitted to hospitals for dengue treatment, in the past eight months.

Half the cases were reported from the Western province, comprising Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts.

COLOMBO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A Chinese military survey ship that docked at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota despite opposition from neighbouring India left on Monday after a week-long stay, the port company told Reuters.

Analysts say the Yuan Wang 5 is among a group of Chinese ships that monitor satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches. India, Sri Lanka's northern neighbour, fears China could use the port as a military base.

COLOMBO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's ruling party has asked the country's new president to provide security and other assistance for his predecessor who fled to Southeast Asia last month after protests flared amid a crippling economic crisis, an official said on Thursday.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew to Singapore last month and quit as Sri Lanka's president, making way for veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe to win a vote in parliament and take the top job. 

COLOMBO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Chinese military survey ship docked at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota on Tuesday after a delay of several days because of opposition to the visit from India, which vies with China for influence in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

India had opposed the docking of the Yuan Wang 5, which analysts describe as a high-tech ship for tracking objects in space, as it fears China could use the port, near the main Asia-Europe shipping route, as a military base.

COLOMBO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka said on Saturday it has agreed that the Chinese survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 can dock at its southernmost port, the Chinese-run Hambantota on August 16, despite security concerns raised by neighbouring India and the United States.

Foreign security analysts describe the Yuan Wang 5 as one of China's latest generation space-tracking ships, used to monitor satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new president said Wednesday that his government is preparing a national policy roadmap for the next 25 years that aims to cut public debt and turn the country into a competitive export economy as it seeks a way out of its worst economic disaster.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his speech to Parliament said Sri Lanka needs long-term solutions and a strong foundation to stop a recurrence of economic crises.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising in Sri Lanka, and citizens should receive a fourth vaccine dose to prevent a possible surge of the coronavirus, the president said Tuesday.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said there were only three reported COVID-19 deaths in June. That rose to 35 in July, including 28 who succumbed after July 18.

There were 283 confirmed cases in June and 1,616 in July, he said.

July 29 (Reuters) - The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, until the Indian Ocean nation has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place, the lender said on Thursday.

In a statement, the World Bank said Sri Lanka needed to adopt structural reforms that focus on economic stabilisation and tackle the root causes of its crisis, which has starved it of foreign exchange and led to shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

COLOMBO, July 24 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's new President Ranil Wickremesinghe told diplomats this week that non-violent protests against his government will be allowed to continue, including in the commercial capital Colombo, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

In a pre-dawn raid on Friday, hundreds of security personnel dismantled part of an anti-government protest camp outside the presidential secretariat, raising fears of a wider crackdown by Wickremesinghe who was sworn in a day earlier.