Sri Lanka may privatize national airline

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, May 16, (AP): Sri Lanka’s new prime minister on Monday proposed privatizing the country’s loss-making national airline as part of reforms aimed at solving the country worst economic crisis in decades.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a message to the people that he plans to propose a special relief budget that will take the place of the development-oriented budget earlier approved for this year, He said it would channel funds previously allocated for infrastructure development to public welfare.

He said the country’s financial health is so poor that the government has been forced to print money to pay the salaries of government workers and buy other goods and services.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister last Thursday in a bid to quell the island nation’s political and economic crisis.

The president’s brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, stepped down as prime minister on May 9 amid violence that left nine people dead and more than 200 wounded. Protesters have demanded the powerful Rajapaksa family resign to take responsibility for leading the country into the economic crisis.

For months, Sri Lankans have been forced to wait in long lines to purchase scarce imported essentials such as medicines, fuel, cooking gas and food because of a severe shortage of foreign currency. Government revenues have also plunged.

Wickremesinghe said Sri Lankan Airlines lost about $123 million in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, which ended in March, and its aggregate losses exceeded $1 billion as of March 2021.

“Even if we privatize Sri Lankan Airlines, this is a loss that we must bear. You must be aware that this is a loss that must be borne even by the poor people of this country who have never stepped on an airplane,” Wickremesinghe said.

Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt and has suspended repayment of about $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion to be repaid by 2026. The country’s total foreign debt is $51 billion. The finance ministry says the country currently has only $25 million in usable foreign reserves.

Wickremesinghe said about $75 billion is needed urgently to help provide people with essential items, but the country’s treasury is struggling to find even $1 billion.

Shortages of medicines are so acute that it is difficult to buy anti-rabies medicines and drugs to treat heart disease, he said.

McDonald’s restaurant is seen in the center of Dmitrov, a Russian town 75 km., (47 miles) north from Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 6, 2014. McDonald’s says it’s started the process of selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people. The fast food giant pointed to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, saying holding on to its business in Russia ‘is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.’ The Chicago-based company had temporarily closed its stores in Russia but was still paying employees. (AP)

In this Oct. 21, 2011 file photo, a man sits in a Russian made Lada Kalina sports car, at a car tuning company’s stand during an automotive exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russia will take control of French car manufacturer Renault’s operations in the country and resurrect a Soviet-era auto brand. The news Monday marks the first major nationalization of a foreign business since the war with Ukraine began. Renault says it would sell its majority stake in Avtovaz to a state-run research institute known as NAMI. Avtovaz is best known for its Lada brand. (AP)