New Delhi: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday admitted to mistakes behind the country’s worst economic crisis in decades and vowed to take corrective actions.
Rajapaksa accepted his mistakes after 17 new Cabinet ministers were appointed on Monday amid efforts to resolve a political crisis resulting from the country's dire economic state.
“During the last two and a half years we have had vast challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the debt burden, and some mistakes on our part,” said Rajapaksa, according to news agency The Associated Press.
“They need to be rectified. We have to correct them and move forward. We need to regain the trust of the people.”
What are mistakes admitted by Sri Lankan President Gotabaya?
Rajapaksa accepted the delay in action and said the government should have approached the International Monetary Fund early on for tackling the impending debt crisis and should not have banned chemical fertilizer in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic.
On the other hand, critics believe that the ban on imported fertilizer was aimed at conserving the country's declining foreign exchange holdings, which badly hurt farmers.
The government has been targeted for taking out large loans for infrastructure projects which have not brought in any money.
“Today, people are under immense pressure due to this economic crisis. I deeply regret this situation," said Rajapaksa. He stressed that the pain, discomfort and anger displayed by people who are forced to wait in long queues for essential items at high prices is justified.
The Cabinet appointments have come amid weeks of protests, violence over shortages of fuel and food and demands that Rajapaksa, his politically powerful family and his government resign.
Sri Lanka is staring at bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. The island nation also faces severe shortage of foreign exchange which means the country lacks money to buy imported goods.
Residents are struggling with shortages of essentials such as food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available.