Sri Lanka seeks Maldives investments to revive economy

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday requested the Maldives to invest in Sri Lanka which declared itself bankrupt in July amid an unprecedented economic crisis.

He made this invitation during a meeting with the Maldivian Vice President Faisal Naseem at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. 

Wickremesinghe asked Naseem to encourage Maldivian investors to invest in high-tech agriculture sector, cruise tourism and high-end tourism sectors.

He also requested the Maldives to join hands with Sri Lanka in establishing the climate change university.

The duo also discussed the growing drug menace affecting this region and Wickremesinghe sought the assistance of the Maldives in combatting the drug scourge.

Wickremesinghe also told the Maldivian Vice President that he intends to invite the Maldivian president to Sri Lanka once his residence, which was destroyed during the July protests, is rebuilt.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1948 and has been enduring soaring inflation, power blackouts, and fuel rationing since last year.

The country defaulted on its $51bn external debt in mid-April and is in talks with the IMF for a $2.9bn bailout.

Months of protests against high prices and shortages of food and medicines led to the toppling of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July.

The UN has said that the poverty rate in the South Asian nation has doubled to 25.6 percent this year, up from 13.1 percent last year.