we certainly can show that tens of hundreds of treaties have been saved from extinction because of the register. alerting people to the fact that they are close to extinction. then working with governments and local authorities and other conservation organizations, putting into place effect conservation measures to then turn things around and bring species back from the brink of extinction. and so because of the beta said, raising the local and then getting the action in on the ground happening, we've been able to say species from extinction. but you know, they all got sick. he's are right on the brink, many, many thousands of them. and so yeah, we really have to ramp up if it's around the world to suck extinction from happening. ah, kind of again, the headlines on al jazeera, a civilian commercial flight, has taken off from the afghan capital for the 1st time since the city fell to the taliban last month. it follows repairs to the runway and radar with the help of

technical teams from cats are turkey. more fighting has taken place in the last pocket of resistance against the taliban in afghanistan, pan your valley, both sides claiming advances. the national distance front is made up of militias and former off gun security 4th members. and is the last group to hold out against taliban rule? the taliban says the whole country is now under its control. serious as it's ready to health crisis at lebanon by allowing gas and electricity to transit through its territory. a senior lebanese delegation in damascus isn't damascus. food and fuel shortages have crippled lebanon's economy. and 4th cutbacks in essential services. jenny jenny, nice party to help from syria for lebanon to pass the gyptian gas and jordan in electricity through syria. the syrian started welcome to request and assured us it was ready to oblige both parties a great to follow up on the detailed technical issues via junk technical team.

brazil says it may have to start rationing electricity as the country suffers its worst drought and nearly a century. water level is in many hydro electric dams have dropped to record lows. protesters in thailand have rallied and bang tossed demanding the resignation of resignation of prime minister prior to no charge. they accuse prayers and his governments of corruption and bungling the current of virus response. the protests which are banned under cobra, 1900 restrictions have gained momentum. recently. french polynesia cove with 1000 outbreak, has escalated to the point where it has stopped counting new infections. its redeployed medical staff to focus on patient care and vaccination instead of testing. walked down and per few measures have been extended until at least september 20th the south pacific islands don't have enough oxygen intensive care beds or even more space. most of the pandemic deaths happens over the past month. the news hour is at the top of the hour on al jazeera,

but up next it's inside story. thanks for watching. ah, ah, ah ah, ah long curious, the food and other basic essential tree lank as economic crisis is deepening. the government's announced emergency measures to tackle the shortages. how is the opposition rise and calling them drastic and the talk on human rights and does the island nation need major reforms to overcome its problems? this is the inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm this does the attain now every life that

people entry lanka has become a major challenge, essentials like food medicine and fuel a much more expensive. and that's if they're even available. this pandemic and recession being blamed and a dramatic fall and the value of the sri lankan repeat, is making things even worse. the island nation depends largely on imports for its food and we could currency means they're now even costlier. the government has announced an economic emergency to ease the burden and millions of families. now we'll discuss the crisis with our guests very shortly, but fast. michelle fernandez has this report for us from columbia. sugar, sugar it everywhere, but not a green to buy. has been the complaint from consumers in she lanka. the government says, this is one of the reasons hoarding by trade is to create an artificial price increase on wednesday, government officials rated warehouses in colombo. they said we're not registered with the consumer affairs authority and see 32000 metric tons of sugar pump and

the stock. so we made available to the public. we distributed through government retailers at an affordable price range like this to acquire hidden stocks. follow president, go to the raj boxes decision to impose a state of emergency and introduce regulations on a central food supplies. under these rules, authorize officers will be able to take steps to provide essential food items at concessional rates to the public by purchasing paddy rice and sugar, including guaranteed prices, or based on customer value on imported goods. to prevent market irregularities, consumers have had to deal with increasing prices as a result of a weakening sheila and ruby and inflation. on thursday, many huge government retail shops to buy this and shows at cheaper rate. seeing again, a local not got that it's very difficult. i usually buy 3 killers of sugar and

lentils, which last me one month. but now they're only giving us one kilo at a time and i can't stretch it. the government's decision to invoke the seat of emergency has had mixed reaction. q is like this one to buy, sugar, milk, powder, lentils, and other essential are becoming a common site, actually longer struggles to balance consumer demand with increasingly dwindling. foreign exchange is of the government says the state of emergency will help, but others are worried among them. emmys demanded in an opposition. m p. who explained his reservations to geneva the poly. you want to entirely in the hands of the president who becomes a parliament himself, in the sense that he can make regulations that override ordinary laws is only subject to the constitution. saw aggregating those powers to himself

with the history of emergency room. this country has had for a long time, immediately alarm bells ringing. and i is important to see they're not happy with the latest developments, but declined to comment on record as a government works to address bigger economic issues, including debt repayment, inflation, growth, and having its currency. many here just want their central goods at an affordable price. manip fernandez or just the ra colombo. ah, well let's now bring in, i guess they're all joining us today from the sri lankan capital, colombo, fussy we have, i just knew about cobra. he is the state minister of finance, capital markets, and state enterprise reforms, and also the former governor of the central bank. we also have how should the silver and opposition member of parliament, and also the former state minister of national policies and economic affairs. and

we also have missions him out, he's an economist and the direct verity research. that's a think tank based in colombo, thank you all for joining us today. i'm really looking forward to our discussion. now, i really want to start with just how we got here. mistake about i know that your government is saying there isn't a food crisis, there isn't any shortages and that this is all been caused by hoarding. there are also reports at the moment of planned food rationing. can you confirm that people will not be going hungry and tell us what went wrong? at the outset itself, i can confirm you. people born go hungry and also the fact that the government has been taking the necessary steps to deal with any hoarding is also clear evidence that we are on top of the situation. that challenges, especially at the time the, the problems of distribution, the problems are. but the thing the problems absorbs getting it across to the people directly to their homes. so those problems are there,

but we'll still be able to deal with every one of those. and today, every single person is able to consume is food at their quantities that you requires. yes, there are. there have been a few shortages, particularly in the case of sugar as a result of so many people hoarding. but your pictures alone. sure that it has been hoarded in large quantities, as much as 100000 tons of sugar already in the country, which has been imported using plenty to exchange. but he did not been put, but it was not been put to submit by people, mainly because traders have been hoarding it. so the government had written books that laws to ensure that that food items could come into the market. and that's what has happened. so we want to confirm that there's absolutely no food shortage in our country. yes, there have been a few instances off, some items of food being hoarded as a result of temporary shortage being treated. but that was also has been addressed

. and so we can confirm to you that that's so think of the past and what happened once again. and we have a lot of top of the situation and the government is taking the necessary steps to distribute it all over. well, these are some pretty drastic steps though, and i think we all acknowledge that there are some challenges and there is an economic crisis and there are some deep economic drivers here of this crisis. i was looking at some of the numbers, so it looks like she lank is foreign reserves, fell to $2800000000.00 at the end of july. now that's down from 7500000000 in november 2019 back. when this government took office and the repeat in that time is also lost more than 20 percent of its value against the us dollar nation. let me throw this to you. what happened? so i think thank you for inviting me on this event with regard to the repeat, i think the depreciation of the drew p i is really a function duct off high inflation in sri lanka. so it's not based on the mental it based on concerns really about the future and management of the economy,

especially the reserve. so i think the fact that 3 long lost access to international financial markets in december 2009. 19, when the government made a drastic reduction in taxes, i think i mentioned markets on the credit agencies downgraded 3 lock up and that really sucked out access to international financial buckets and thought that the betty b the decline of the reserves. so as reserves decline, dollars have been in shots supply for basic things like you petition and that shortage like in any comics, the tuition shortage drives the prices and really the price of the dollar going up on repeat the presenting, which means the same thing is driven by this sort of artificial shortage created by the government not being able to borrow internationally to top up the reserves that

it has to expend to set the loans that are becoming due. so that's a very short, i think, quick funded mental reason. the days crisis minister, i know you, you are shaking your head and you don't degree and i will come back to you in just a moment, but i do want to bring in mr. da silva at this stage because i know there has also been talk of foreign help, potentially even assistance or more assistance from the i. m. s. mr. da silva. what are your thoughts on that? how do tree line can feel about foreign assistance? i know president roger pox that hasn't been too keen when one means to be realistic. right now we must acknowledge that we are in a crisis. i am happy to hear the minister say that no c lanka will go hungry. that's. that's good because none of us will be in government, boy and opposition, whatever. want to see that situation in c lanka. and the issue really

is the ability for us to meet external payments. our fallen quite drastically. and as you pointed out, we're left with maybe a little or $2000000000.00. we did get some assistance from the i m s, which is the everyone else also about that will be you stop in the next few months. so the issue really is not one, not only would it be that issue is one of fall luncheon. so when the government is using poor like danbury borrowings and swaps that is not going to fix the problem. so where they do that, i am a for anyone else. i mean i'm no fan necessarily. i am at all. what we need to bring in is this a limb and the confidence back in us so that we can get things upgraded. so we can

have access back again to international markets. so if that happens, then we have breathing space. and after that we can really address the funding mental problems that we need to in order to have sustainable growth going forward. minister cobra, i saw the statement that you gave yesterday with the foreign minister. i believe you say the country is record is impeccable. but as out to other guests have alluded to, sri lanka was down, downgraded by credit rating agencies. and as a result, has this very limited access to international capital. so do you stand by that statement that the record of sri lanka is still impeccable? yes, very much so very bad sore. and i must also tell you that although the reserves had gone down to $2800000000.00 at the end of last month, it has reached up to a $3800000000.00. and we also have another access that is possible from

a chinese source, which is another $1500000000.00. so be essentially have our high pods, the $1000000000.00. but the main point is not just totally that the main point is that we have sufficient money is to pay off all the external debt. and we also ensuring that street cars rely on one extender that is going to be reduced. as time goes on, you see by end of 2014, we had only about $5000000.00 exposed to the international market where we had a g d. p of 80000000000, but by 2019 that number had gone up to 15000000 dollars. and on a g d. p of just 84000000000. so we had to know shing that a little bit. and that's why this government has taken a conscious decision that we would like to have new influence coming in, which are non bit creative. that's why we opened out the port city be opened out new investment opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector. be out having g 2, g kind of borrowings being now pursued in order to ensure that the reliance on

markets is reduced. so that of a little bit it is also list. so yes, we do it that there has been a slight reduction in the overall reserve levels, and that is also not merely because of the reasons that valued by the other 2 gentlemen. it was mainly because tourism, which had a port and a half $1000000000.00 inflow coming into the country that was disturbed as a result of coffee. and actually that had to be addressed with other areas of reductions in the foreign exchange outflows, which meant that the reserve build up was a little weaker than otherwise. but even so, i was, did pain has be impeccable, as i mention, even in 2900 people said we won't be able to pay the debts in 2020 it 1020. they said we won't be able to pay the $21.00 we did in $21.00. they're saying again, vulnerability, but dot in 2022 buddy to be 2023. so these kinds of stories we have heard before,

i must admit, but every time we have seen that management of these numbers and the reserves have been sufficiently done in such a way that we will be on top of the situation so much that it will be the same, i say, i do want to talk about clearing sri lanka, well, especially within the context of the pandemic, right? we've seen the whole wild struggle, but countries as you say, who are very reliant on tourism habit had really particularly tough. now tourism and travel have long been major contributors to the sri lankan government finances . it's been the 3rd largest foreign exchange on accounting for nearly 10 percent of gdp back in 2019. that was according to the wild traveling tourism council. but as we been saying, the sect has been hit hard by this pandemic. the number of tourist arriving the 1st 7 months of this year since borders will reopened, has fallen by 96 percent. not staggering. the countries received less than

$20000.00 visitors. this is much less than the $57000.00 who visited last year until march. before these locked downs were imposed, the sri lankan government had aim to draw in nearly $4000000.00 tourists in 2020, along with $5000000000.00. mister da silva, let me ask you from your perspective, have these efforts been working? are you optimistic about where this might go to or some running is critically important to us. i agree with you about the reality is far. what is some to get back to where i was unfortunately, is going to take some time. people want to go on vacation, their children need to be of accident or her. and the whole was really, you don't needs to be wrapped in it. so i am not very optimistic that the numbers are going to go. ready up, you know, as quickly as the government, these are expecting it. so therefore we need to figure out why there's

options where we're going to get a revenue when mr. gonzalez said that, that we're doing for, for indirect investments, not every for indirect investment dollars is going to stay in that is that one to be taken back out for various purchases, suffolk with raw material. so therefore, we really in increasing initial off, like i said, one off the song one. so now here mr said look, we will match the cash flow. this is not the issue. the issue is not one of the things that you can resolve in swaps and shot borrowings. is it we need to get our stand again? i did the ease of how fast i'm going to me is going to grow. and unfortunately we've had so many shops in the last so many years investment they have not been

good enough indeed. and we've growth has been very, very sluggish and stories. i do want to bring in nation here because i want to turn the conversation also to how people are actually experiencing this on the ground everyday. sri lankan. now if you're sitting in columbia and i imagine you're keeping an eye on the cost of basic goods for yourself. 1 and your family, i'm curious, how much has that changed in the last 2 years? say a bag of rice, how much did it cost then? how much does it cost now? and do you have access to your confidence that you have access to essentially like food and medicine and fuel? so i think, you know, the central bank reports on the inflation rate and inflation be somewhat higher than it has been in past years. but it's still in the single digit that that inflation is being reported. so people experiencing an increase in cost, but more than that, i think people also anticipate seeing costs going up even more as the dollar sort

of appreciates that will be depreciated rather not. so 20 percent depreciation of the repeat simply means that important inputs including medication exit, traveling whopping price. so people are having a hard time with the economic slowdown as undoubtedly. and i think, you know, that's not unusual. every country has been through difficult times of cor, within the band problem for the government. let me just save it corporate and is to come out of it quickly, not be on a red lit globally. so the way to recover from tourism is that they covered the 2 of them is that toward the need to stop reading coming, just read like updating laptop and for the extra cut needs to find a path out and the read list as off as possible. but the 2 countries by and read list sensory located one of them and i'll add to this also i think, you know, to be. busy feared the government, but instability of policy policies with regards to current time, etc,

have changed so rapidly short notice that people are waiting you know it out. i think right now because they're not sure. but the after they make that travel plan policy can change the policy ability is also an important issue. of course, i want to come back to that we just said about prices and sugar 40 in a, in a competitive market. if the market is not a monopoly market, quoting does not make sense. so really, i think from a position of government, you have to solve the holding problem too with either you say there's something wrong with that market structure. there's not enough competition because you know, people can't or don't be given a few people, one police and that should stop. the 2nd reason that can be holding is if the currency depreciating, so fos, people are not confident they can buy stock needed for the future. so they hold back the stock they have at present to make sure they'll be able to sell in the future as well. so, you know, both the problems that the government can solve,

not by trying to unbound the people who are holding. but by trying to solve the problems that make them quote, either because they have a monopoly power and there's no competition or because they're great on the, about the future and ability to buy at the bad, the rupees, going back to buy into your prices. now i'm really curious about some of the other policies during this time that have also been into place. and i want to get your perspective on this because i see there's also been a big move towards organic farming and lanka. and also now with these new restrictions, fertilizer and pesticide imports have also been halted. now follow the saying that that means the cop killed a potentially going to be hogged, literally slashed by hoff that also has implications. so food and security as well as i believe, your biggest export t, which accounts for what? $1250000000.00 a year, 10 percent of sri lanka export income. i'm going to stick

a browser. you stand by that decision. yes, very much saw is he whatever speculation that has been, we have seen that there has been no shortage at all. in fact, the production has been up. so i think there is speculation that this will happen or that will happen. but at the end of the day, we have seen in every single instance that every month, the productions are not, the prices have been good idea has been generating revenues that burden. so i think yes, been that our policy changes as well as certain decisions taken by governments that can be some adjustment that is needed. but at the same time, we got to understand that even though there may be resistance to such changes, that if the right policies are taken and then the necessary assistance is also provided. either the government is prepared to take the distance to the steps to change that situation in case that any problems you will need some new imports to be done with regard to bailey or get the car for delays that we already did to do

that as well. so we are confident that those numbers will be delivered and, and the necessary revenues will be hit. so actually we are to also understand that these measures have not been taken. suddenly these have been discussed for more than 10 years. and then once a decision is taken, then naturally that adjustment will for some problems have the initial stages. but we are confident that that you'd also be said very quickly. just one more point. if we got to the sugar debate that we had see overall, we got to understand that there may be certain technical issues that need to be sorted out if that makes sense. but if days door shall go in the market, then with the government has to deal with it. and that's why certain dives the government has been invoking the rules and regulations of all. did he noticed that you had books in order to deal with the situation and now that particular difficulty has now been sorted out and then we are now clear of that hoarding issue

as far as to gaze. now mister da silva, i want to bring you in here. i see that you disagree and i know that you yourself a state minister at one point in dealing with economic says we don't have a lot of time left. but i do want to ask you to briefly tell me what if you are in government right now, what you would be doing differently. thank you. but before i say that, i mean, it looks to me as a universe. yeah, i mean things i'm not rosy as just expressed by my dear friend mister car. people are having issues with crops. i mean, if i just drive around and speak to be but say, look, our crops, you know, in need of, for like a need up pesticides. so therefore, this decision is not something that had been discussed for the day and the earth. in fact, in the manifesto off the president, he said this decision will be implemented or what then yes, monday instead,

it was implemented over night so that we see in policy making. so that's the issue . and the for this country is facing multiple problems. you know? yes, the food issue, i hope it will be the solid. but you don't need a jack hammer to do i can do with the screwdriver. i've been a legislator for the last 11 years and enough gnaws in statute books that you can use instead of bringing emergency laws to manage the food crisis. when you do that, a very, you know, and see what a message was out of this country to the rest of the world. and we saw a lot of international breast reporter and some not storage. well, i don't, we've been saying is indeed about perception about the way that the wild seas tree

lanka, and we do hope that things improved. i know there are lots of challenges ahead. we are out of time, i'm afraid. so i like to say thank you to all of our guests. just move on cobra, the statement of steps of finance, capital markets, and state enterprise reforms. how should the silver and opposition member of parliament initially the mouth and economist, all joining us from colombo, thank you to for watching. you can see this program again anytime by visiting our website. that's al jazeera dot com. and for further discussion, do go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash a inside story. remember, you can also join the conversation on twitter. handle is at a inside story for me and as you pay on the whole team, by for the news news, news,

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