The growing COVID-19 crisis threatens to hit developing countries disproportionately , not only as a health crisis in the short term but as a devastating economic crisis over the months and years to come.

In moments like these, it’s natural to think only about the immediate challenges, but we also need to think about the next stage of recovery, so we don’t lose that opportunity when it comes.

Sharing few thoughts on how Sri Lanka needs to focus its energies in order to get over this current crisis, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Prime Minister’s Senior Adviser on Economic Affairs, reiterated that the country needs to be more innovative and think out of the box to come up with new blended financial instruments to move forward.

“COVID- 19 would cause massive problems for the world and to Sri Lanka. Hence, we need to look at new ways in which we would move our economy forward.  It is not going to be easy but we have to be innovative, we have to think out of the box and we have to find ways of creating equity not just only debt. Because we cannot replace debt with debt and then think that we have done right. So under those circumstances and with those constraints we need to work with tools and resources that we have in order to go forward,” he said.

“Once it is time for us to really put in place the set of packages and set of policies in order to take the country forward, we would have that with us and we won’t waste any time implementing those,” he added.

Full statement can be viewed below: