brand logo

Patali to discuss ways to meet SL food demand

17 Oct 2022

BY Mirudhula Thambiah The National Council’s sub-committee on identifying short- and medium-term programmes related to economic stabilisation, headed by MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, will initiate a dialogue with the experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, and other officials from the related sector on 18 and 19 October to discuss on how to meet the demand for food in Sri Lanka. Speaking to The Morning, Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s MP Ranawaka yesterday (16)  said he would hold meetings with food security experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Trade on how to fulfill the required demand for food in the country. “We would discuss the need for food and how the required target would be achieved. We are inviting the top officials of the Ministries of Agriculture and Trade, and other experts of the field. We would obtain opinions from all the officials, and at the latter stage we are going to consult the grassroots-level societies like the farmers, fishermen, and various other sectors. But on the scheduled day, we would meet the Government officials and the specialists in the field,” he added. Following which, he also added that the committee had also scheduled a meeting with the energy sector on the same day. Meanwhile, commenting on the meeting held last week with officials of the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance, he added: “We cannot reveal the outcome of the meeting held on 14 October, because when we met the officials of the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry on the debt restructuring mechanism, they were asking us to maintain radio silence, so we cannot reveal everything.” Rananwaka also noted that a meeting was held on 14 October with health sector specialists, especially pharmaceutical officials, and agreed to reduce the import costs of medicinal drugs. “We had a meeting with the health sector specialists and other relevant officials from the Health Ministry, especially from the National Medicines Regulatory Authority, State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka, State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation, and the private sector manufacturers. We had a fruitful discussion and came to the agreement that we can sharply reduce the import cost of the medicinal drugs without harming the health indices, which we achieved with much difficulty over the last 70 years. We will draft a short-term measure to address this issue,” he added. Ranawaka noted that the sub-committee is also looking forward to scheduling a meeting on social safety networks, for the unemployed and the newly poor hit by the recent economic crisis. “The middle-class people are facing the heavy burden of this economic crisis because of the new taxation rules. All these factors will be considered and hopefully we will submit proposals to the Ministry of Finance and President Ranil Wickremesinghe. We would also forward the proposal to the National Council and Parliament,” he said. Ranawaka noted that the committee he heads will also propose short- and mid-term measures, which would be pragmatic and implementable. “I can assure that the short- and mid-term measures will be pragmatic and implementable proposals that would be presented to relevant authorities,” he added. Ranawaka earlier told The Morning that the committee would submit its final proposal on debt sustainability and economic development to President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on 8 November.


More News..