Sri Lankan president appoints special task force for economic revival, poverty alleviation

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a special presidential task force in charge of economic revival and poverty alleviation in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the island country, a statement from his office said here Thursday.

The statement said the Task Force will take steps to steer the relevant institutes to create a production economy through the formulation of a unique economic structure based on novel initiatives.

"Implementation of joint operations to establish a people-centric economy which will promote domestic industrialists and entrepreneurs is another objective of this Task Force," the statement said.

"It has also been tasked with the responsibility of taking measures to distribute products in liaising with all the institutes while paying attention to the activities undertaken by the health and education task forces to maintain normalcy in the civilian life," the statement added.

Sri Lanka earlier this week relaxed a curfew in several districts of the country following a limited spread of the COVID-19, in order to re-start economic activities. Businesses and factories were encouraged to open while following strict guidelines of the Health Ministry.

The country imposed an islandwide curfew on March 20 which resulted in businesses and economic activities coming to a halt as positive cases of the virus began to be reported. Capital Colombo remains under a curfew with the highest number of cases being reported, Health Ministry statistics showed.

So far the country has reported over 300 cases of the virus and caused seven deaths.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)