activists are mean says the government is actively trying to mold the identity of young chinese hoshal aria and the government wants a traditional image for its people. not taught diverse. why do i think this really limits the imagination and creativity of the young people? it shows the societies becoming less accepting to those who are different. me and others like him are worried darrell changes head and the freedoms of chinese youth will increasingly be replaced by the agenda for the communist government. katrina, you algae 0, beijing. ah . her again, i'm fully back. you're going to have the headlines on al jazeera. there's been heavy gunfire in guineas capital con a creek near the presidential palace. army troops have been deployed to the 3 of

can agree, a senior government official has said president down for condi is on harm. the battle for control of afghanistan sponge deer valley is intensifying. more he is fighting is reported between the national resistance frontend taliban forces. with both sides, claiming to have the upper hand in montenegro, the non duration ceremony of bishop nikia. as a new head of the serbian orthodox church has taken place. despite protests, demonstrators blocks, roads, and font with police. before the inauguration, tens of thousands of farmers have rallied in northern india against controversial agricultural logs introduced last year, talked to the government of fans to break the deadlock in commerce began. hotel. 9 months ago. inferior government for his have shall. the southern rebel held enclave of ballade injuring civilians. it follows the 3 day si,

fi which are seen. russian soldiers patrolling. the rebels stronghold that people in dare i say the government did not allow aid to get in yemen. sophie, rebels say they've launch an attack on state oil facilities in ross to newer and of the city of jetta inside your abn. earlier the south lead coalition said it intercepted 3, miss aust, strikes in the east and south of the country. 3 people were injured including a child, at least 14 houses were damaged when his, when his government says negotiations with the opposition to resolve the countries long running political prices on making progress. a 2nd round of talks is being held in mexico. the opposition wants guarantees, elections in november will be free and fair present. class madura says international sanctions need to be relax. those are the headlines on al jazeera, as always is more news on our website balances era dot com, the very latest and all of our top stories on their next, it's inside story say,

with a news news, news news. a long here is the food and other basic essential sri lanka. economic crisis is deepening. the government's announced emergency measures to tackle the shortages. how is the opposition rise and calling them drastic and an attack on human rights, and does the island nation need major reforms to overcome its problems? this is the inside story. ah, ah. hello and welcome to the program. i'm the stars the attain. now,

everyday life for people, entry lanka has become a major challenge, essentially like food medicine and fuel and 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's everywhere, but not a green to buy has been the complaint of consumers in sri lanka. the government says, this is one of the reasons hoarding by trade is to create an artificial price increase on wednesday government official rated warehouses in colombo. they said we're not registered with the consumer affairs authority and see 32000 metric tons of should

the sample of 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 good or bad roger boxes, decision to impose a state of emergency and introduce regulations on a central food supplies. under these rules authorized officers will be able to take steps to provide essential food items at concessional rates to the public by purchasing patty 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 killer. what the 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 a becoming a common site actually longer struggles to balance consumer demand with increasingly dwindling foreign exchange reserves. the government says the state of emergency will help, but others are worried among them. a nice london and opposition m p, who explained his reservations to geneva, the poly you want to entirely in the hands of the president who becomes the parliament himself, in the sense that he can make regulations that override ordinary laws is only subject to the constitution. saw at a good thing,

those powers to himself with the history of emergency room. this country has had for a long time. immediately alarm bells start bringing in. 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 year just want their central goods at an affordable price. net fernandez. oh, 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 testing. we have just move out cobra, he's the state minister finance, capital markets, and state enterprise reforms. and also the former governor of the central bank. we also have how should the sylvan 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 for dr. 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 of 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, hoodie, but your pictures alone. sure that it has been hoarded in large quantities. there were as much as 100000 tons of sugar quality in the country which had 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 had been holding it. so the government had written books and 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 is absolutely no food shortage in our country. yes, there have been a few instances of some items of food being ordered and as a result of temporary shortage being treated. but that also has been addressed. and

so we can confirm to you that that so think of the past and what happened once again, and we will on 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 sri lanka, 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? 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 of duct 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 the financial markets of the credit agency is downgraded 3 lock up. and that really sucked out access to international financial bucket and thought that the very be the decline of the reserves. so as reserves decline, dollars have been in shop applied for basic things like in petition and that shortage like in any comic situation, shortage drives the prices and really the price of the dollar going up on the repeat, the preceding which means the same thing is driven by the occupant, so shortage created by the government and not being able to borrow internationally to top up the reserves that it has to expend to settle loans that are becoming due

. so that's a better shot. i think quick funded mental reason that days crisis administer. i know you, you are shaking her head and you don't agree 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. at mr. silva. what are your thoughts on that? how do true 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 dep 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 the issue is one of $1.00 fee. so when the government is using tools like temporary borrowings and swaps that is not going to fix the problem. so when 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 fundamental problems that we need to a in order to have sustainable growth going forward. minister cabal, i saw the statement that you gave yesterday with the foreign minister. i believe you say the country is record is impeccable. but as to other guests has 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 a high pied see $1000000000.00. but the main point is, i just told you 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 extended 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. when 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 creating. 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 less. so yes, we do recognize that has been a slight reduction in the overall reserve levels. and that is also not merely because of the reasons that valued it by the other 2 gentlemen. it was mainly because truism 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, what did pain has be impeccable, as i mentioned, even in 2900 people said we won't be able to pay the debts in 2020. it 2020, they said we won't be able to pay the $21.00 we did in $21.00. they're saying again, vulnerability, but not in 2022 but 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 just sit, it will be the same. i. so 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, have it had really particularly tough now tourism and travel have long been major, contributed to the sri lankan government finances and 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 tourists 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 $37000.00 who visited last year until march. before these lock 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 revenue 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, it's going to take some time. people want to go on vacation. their children need to be of accident or her. and the whole lot of really you don't needs to be raxon entered. so i am not very optimistic that the numbers are going to go up, you know, as quickly as the government is expecting it. so therefore we need to figure out

why there's options where we're going to get a revenue. when mr. trump said that that we're doing for, for indirect investments, not every foreign direct investment dollar is going to stay in that is that one to be taken back out for various purchases, stuff, equipment and raw material. so therefore, we really in increasing initial off, like i said, one off song runs it now here mr said look we will match the cash flow. this is not the issue. the issue is not one of the couldn't be that you can resolve it swaps and shot borrowings. is it we need to get our stand again. i did each of how fast i want to me. it's 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 actually experiencing this on the ground everyday. sri lankan. now, if you're sitting in colombo and i imagine you're keeping an eye on the cost of basic goods for yourself 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 is that the inflation is being reported. so people experiencing increasing but more than that, i think people are anticipating costs going up even more as the dollar sort of

appreciates that will be depreciates rather not so 20 percent depreciation up that repeat simply means that important inputs including medication exit traveler 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 call within the band problem for the government. let me just save it corporate and is to come out of it quickly, not be on read it globally. so the way to recover from tourism is that they cover 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 pop out of the read list as off as possible. but the 2 countries i and read list centurylink is one of them. and i also, i think, you know, to be. busy fear the govern, but instability of policy policies with regard to current time,

etc. have changed so rapidly. and notice that people are waiting you know, it out. i think right now because they're not sure the after they make that travel plans, policy can change the policy and stability is also an important issue. of course, i want to come back to, to said about prices and sugar, 40 it 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 bucket structure. there's not enough competition because you know, people can or don't if you've 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 stuff 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 on down the people who are holding. but by trying to solve the problems that make them either because they have monopoly power, there's no competition or because they're great on the about the future and ability to buy at the bad the rupees going and back to buy. yes, n d o a 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 sri 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 p 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. so you see 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 ideas been generated, the revenues that burden. so i think, yes, but that 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. and the government is prepared to take the distance of the steps to change that situation in case that the problems where you would need some new imports to be done with regard to bailey, organic, or fertilizer. we already did do that as the 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 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 the de 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 little universe. yeah, i mean things are not rosy as just expressed by my dear friend mister brown. people are having issues with crops. i mean, if just drive around and speak to be but say look, our crops, you know, in need of for like a need pesticides. so therefore, this decision is not something that had been discussed for 10 years. in fact, in the manifesto off the president, he said this decision will be implemented or 10 years. instead it was implemented

over night. so this is the one that we see in policy making. so that's the issue. and the are for this country is facing multiple problems, you know? yes. the food issue, i hope it will be the sod, 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 instead of books that you can use instead of bringing emergency laws to manage the food glasses. when you do that, a very, you know, i'm here with a message both out of this country. the rest of the world and we saw a lot of international breast reporter and some not to 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 provide the 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 to pay on the whole team. by for the news

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my empowering impartial. we tell your story, we are your voice, your new, your neck out here. ah, me. hello, i'm fully batch boy in doha, with a look at our main stories on al jazeera there's been heavy gunfire in guineas, capital, con creed near the presidential palace. the sunday army troops have been deployed to the streets of con cree, as senior government official has said, president con, day is unharmed. with soft correspondence, nicholas hank has moved from the car.