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Saturday September 24, 2022 11:56 pm
Saturday September 24, 2022 11:56 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group and Sri Lankam conglomerate Hemas Holdings have partnered to provide an affordable and quality health-care through digital technology supported by local management consultancy, L.E.K Consulting, the IFC said in a statement.
“Sri Lanka will be the first country to benefit from an IFC global initiative designed to boost access to affordable and quality health-care,” the IFC said in a statement.
The initiative is named to be Global Digital Health Platform (DigiHealth) which will commence in Sri Lanka, is expected to create a platform to partner with healthcare organizations to develop, implement and finance digital transformation strategies.
DigiHealth is to offer a range of digital healthcare solutions including medical care, health education, health information services via telehealth, specialist healthcare via telemedicine, and the means for health-care providers to transform their processes through automation, digitization and advanced analytics.
“Easy access to quality healthcare services has become increasingly important in a post-COVID world, especially for vulnerable communities,” aid Kasturi Chellaraja Wilson, Group CEO of Hemas.
“We hope that with IFC’s backing, we will be able to ensure that DigiHealth will play a pivotal role in ensuring that all Sri Lankans will have access to quality healthcare at their fingertips.”
A grand view research conducted had expected digital health systems globally to reach $95 billion in 2018 and reach $509 billion by 2025.
However, with the pandemic in play, targets an expectation of long-term growth has been channeled for the digital health industry with possibilities to raveling up changes for the industry as a whole.
“The DigiHealth platform is IFC’s response to the rising demand for digital health services, which aim to be delivered at a higher quality and lower cost, which is needed in a country like Sri Lanka were existing private sector players have limited reach,” said Rana Karadsheh, Regional Industry Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services at IFC Asia Pacific.
Sri Lanka is increasingly facing shortage of medical practitioners as more senior consultants and doctors leave the country in the face of the economic crisis while the government policy to reduce the retirement age also has cut down the number of medical practitioners. (Colombo/Sep24/2022)
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Sunday October 13, 2024 7:08 pm
Sunday October 13, 2024 7:08 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – Washington based World Bank has to start discussions to resume policy loans or other funding for Sri Lanka with existing budget support lined up along with an International Monetary Fund program having come to an end, an official said.
Budget support loans have no import or spending component allowing proceeds to be used for general expenditure or to settle maturing short-term debt.
“In terms of budget support plans, we’ve got no firm plans at the moment,” Gevorg Sargsyan, World Bank Country Manager for Sri Lanka said.
“We need to have a conversation with the new government, understand their reform plans, what they’re thinking. And then on our side, we can also formulate the kind of support that we can provide, whether it’s budget support or other kind of operations.
“That’s still a conversation that needs to happen.”
The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other lending agencies have indicated their readiness to support Sri Lanka at meetings with newly elected President Anura Dissanayake.
In the run-up to the default, especially after the IMF said Sri Lanka’s debt was not sustainable, multilateral lenders could not approve new project or other loans.
The World Bank and Sri Lanka last week inked an earlier negotiated 200 million dollar budget support loan (development policy operation) on which prior actions including reducing para tariffs to boost export competitiveness, over an extended period, has been completed.
In parallel with the IMF program, the World Bank has already provided 500 million dollars reform-backed loans to stabilize the country and open pathways to growth.
As the IMF stabilization and reform program started in 2023, up to 300 to 400 dollars of policy loans were potentially indicated from both Asian Development Bank and World Bank for each year up to 2027, making up a total of 3.7 billion US dollars in addition to more expensive and short term IMF loans.
Policy loans are disbursed on reforms which unlock the potential of the country which will also tend to bring future tax revenues to pay off the loans.
Sri Lanka went on a front-loaded reform program, where most of the politically difficult tax reforms, but they can also be undone easily, pushing up deficits and debt.
Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in 2022 after aggressive macro-economic policy involving inflationary rate cuts for growth (potential output) started after a 30-year war ended, driving the country into serial currency crises in 2012, 2015/16, 2018 and 2020/22.
At each currency crisis, foreign debt including for petroleum imports, ratcheted up and central bank reserves fell, earning downgrades, while stabilization crises that followed, pushed up the interest bill and slowed growth. (Colombo/Oct13/2024)
Sunday October 13, 2024 11:14 am
Sunday October 13, 2024 11:14 am
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Cinnamon Air said it was widening its scheduled network from November 01, linking top tourist destinations with each other as the winter season starts, slashing cross country travel times.
From November 01, new flights will connect Koggala and Hambantota with Kandy and Sigiriya in central Sri Lanka.
“These cross-country flights are designed to enhance convenience and reduce travel time while ensuring an unparalleled experience for those who wish to explore Sri Lanka’s South Coast after visiting the Cultural Triangle or the Central Hill Country,” Cinnamon Air said in a statement.
Passengers can now cross from the Cultural Triangle (through Sigiriya) or the Central Hill Country (through Kandy) to the South Coast in 40 to 50 minutes, compared to 6 to 7 hours on the road, Cinnamon Air said, giving more time to spend on leisure activities.
“In recent times, we have observed that foreign tourists’ travel patterns within Sri Lanka have been changing …to more focused tours involving a small number of locations or regions such as the Cultural Triangle, the Central Hill Country, and the South Coast,” Chief Executive Sean Dwight said in a statement.
“As a result, we have carefully designed these two flights to meet the needs of international travellers who are visiting Sri Lanka, providing swift, comfortable, and scenic journeys between some of the country’s most treasured locations.”
The airline said its Cessna 208 amphibian aircraft which take off from water also have large windows giving travellers a memorable experience with panoramic views of the islands, hills, forests and coastlines.
Cinnamon Air is operated by Saffron Aviation (Pvt) Limited, a joint venture between John Keells Holdings, MMBL Leisure Holdings and Phoenix Ventures.
The airline also operates charters to all airports and water aerodromes in Sri Lanka. (Colombo/Oct23/2024)
Sunday October 13, 2024 8:37 am
Sunday October 13, 2024 8:37 am
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves rose by 38 million US dollars to 5,992 million US dollars in September 2024 from a month earlier, with the central bank a net buyer in interbank foreign exchange markets.
The central bank bought 108.5 million US dollars and sold 12.5 million dollars to manage its soft-peg.
The central bank is broadly running deflationary policy since around September 2022, killing liquidity from dollar purchases by selling its domestic assets to the banking system (or getting coupon interest on bonds), triggering balance of payments surpluses.
Gross official reserves are made up of central bank’s monetary reserves (collected with deflationary policy or sterilizing dollar purchases) and fiscal reserves of the Treasury built temporarily with foreign borrowings.
Sri Lanka has built reserves with deflationary policy, and has repaid debt on a net basis.
The central bank is also repaying its borrowings from the International Monetary Fund and also from the Reserve Bank of India.
The central bank borrowed heavily to cut and maintain artificially low interest rates from 2020, through inflationary open market operations (targeting mid or bottom corridor rates with print money) claiming inflation was low (flexible inflation targeting) to boost growth (potential output).
Data showed that net foreign assets of the central bank continued to improve up to August.
By denying monetary stability, growth fell after each potential output targeting exercise with the last exercise to ‘close a persistent output gap’ triggering two years of economic contraction, a sovereign default and a steep rise in poverty by depreciating the rupee.
Growth has started to pick up as the central bank refrained from providing monetary instability giving a breathing space for economic agents to work.
However, analysts have warned that with the new law giving room to generate 5 to 7 percent inflation and target potential output (which was illegal under the earlier law), eventually rates will be cut with inflationary policy as private credit recovers. (Colombo/Oct12/2024)
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