Colombo, March 16 ( /Xinhua) Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday evening said his government expects to generate 2.5 billion US dollars from grants and investments as the nation faces a severe foreign exchange shortage. In a speech televised live on all television stations, Rajapaksa asked local citizens to have faith in him as he was well aware of the sufferings of the citizens from the shortages of essential items and increase in prices. He said he was well aware of issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic such as the gas shortage, fuel shortage, and power cuts but assured maximum efforts were being taken to address these issues. The president said the root cause of the current issues in the country was the foreign exchange crisis, so the government had initiated discussions with international financial institutions as well as friendly countries regarding the repayment of Sri Lanka’s loan installments. He added the government was also in discussions with various parties to implement a new method regarding addressing the foreign exchange crisis and this included discussions with the International Monetary Fund. He further asked Sri Lankans to limit the use of fuel and electricity as much as possible to overcome the immediate shortages. /XINHUA MYK
