President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he is very sensitive to the many sufferings the people have experienced over the past two months and said he is determined to make tough decisions to find solutions to the inconveniences experienced by the people.

He stated this while delivering his special address to the nation on Wednesday (16) night. 

“I address you today at a challenging time. I am well aware of the shortages of essential items and increase in prices. I am also aware of issues such as gas shortage, fuel shortage and power cuts. I am also very sensitive to the many sufferings the people have to experience over the past two months.” 

The President said he knows that this situation will continue for reasons beyond their control though they make maximum possible efforts with regard to these situations. 

“I accept responsibility for the actions I take,” he said. “Today, I am determined to make tough decisions to find solutions to the inconveniences that the people are experiencing.” 

The President said he has appointed a National Economic Council and an Advisory Committee to assist it and that he will constantly monitor whether the decisions he make through this are implemented. 

Therefore, he requested the people to have faith in the actions he will take on behalf of the people.

The President said he is well aware of the difficulties faced by the people and that Sri Lanka is not the only country in the world affected by the prevailing crisis situation.

“The entire world is engulfed with various hardships,” he said, adding that increasing shipping costs, rising commodity prices and shortages of certain goods caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are all beyond their control. 

“However, we have adopted concessionary initiatives for the benefit of the people,” he stressed.

“This crisis was not created by me. When those who contributed to the creation of this crisis are criticizing the government in front of the people today, I am attempting to immediately resolve this crisis and provide relief to the people,” he said.

Rajapaksa said that in a crisis situation like this, it is the responsibility of the politicians and intellectuals of a country to collectively find solutions to the issues.

“The root cause of current issues is our foreign exchange crisis,” he said.

He said that they must take action to fill Sri Lanka’s trade deficit, which will be USD 2.4 billion, and increase the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

He said that to this end, they have initiated discussions with international financial institutions as well as with friendly countries regarding repayment of our loan installments. 

The government is in discussions with various parties to implement a new method regarding this which will be beneficial to the country, he said, adding that yesterday’s discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was also held for this purpose. 

He said that through those discussions, they hope to find a way to pay off the island’s annual loan installments, sovereign bonds, and so on. 

“Subsequent to my discussions with the International Monetary Fund, I have decided to work with them after examining the advantages and disadvantages.”

President Rajapaksa said that due to some decisions he has taken in the recent past, they were able to control the import expenditure to a great extent. 

“We suspended importing vehicles two years ago because we saw this issue in advance. In addition, we encouraged local industries. We also stopped the importation of many non-essential food items and took steps to cultivate those crops in our own country.” 

“Now we can witness the successful results of those initiatives,” he stressed.

He said the most serious issue the country is facing in controlling the cost of imports is the rapidly rising fuel prices in the world market. 

Generally, more than 20 percent of our import expenditure is spent on purchasing fuel, he said, adding that in the last few months alone, fuel prices in the world market have more than doubled. 

“This is the reason why the increase in fuel prices in our country was inevitable.” Fuel is widely used in our country not only for vehicles but also to generate electricity, he said.

“This is why, I constantly took steps to discuss and encourage relevant agencies to use renewable energy sources as much as possible.”

Therefore, by limiting the use of fuel and electricity as much as possible, the citizens too can extend their support to the country at this time, he said. 

“I hope that you will understand the responsibility lies with you at this challenging time.”

The full address by the President is below: 

President's Address to ... by Ada Derana