Colombo, July 17 (Agency) Sri Lanka’s acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that much required to be done to save the country from collapsing amid global crisis. Revealing that the G7 alliance on the global food crisis has offered Sri Lanka $14 million to spend on food, Wickremesinghe said there is much to be done to prevent third-world countries such as Sri Lanka from collapsing in the face of the global situation, Daily Mirror reported on Sunday. Speaking at an international conference on food security, the acting President said that high inflation caused the food out of reach of people.Wickremesinghe said, “It is said some six million people in Sri Lanka are suffering from malnutrition. Other reports have said those who are suffering from malnutrition could be as high as 7.5 million people. Sri Lanka’s average paddy production is usually 24 million metric tons. However, production in 2021 has been 16 million metric tons.
“Therefore Sri Lanka will have to import one-third of its need for rice. The exchange rate crisis prevents this. Sri Lanka is also faced with a fuel supply issue. The G7 global alliance on food security of which World Bank is also a member had offered us US$14 billion to acquire food. We are grateful to them. The government has also embarked on a good security program.” He said that Sri Lanka’s issues “is partly self-made and partly due to the global crisis.”He pointed out that the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian has affected Sri Lanka and urged to resolve the issues peacefully.”The war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the EU are affecting us. EU says sanctions will not affect us. However, it will push third-world nations such as us to our knees. However, the EU is not the only one to be blamed. Russia also must call for a ceasefire. Both Russia and Ukrainian must call for a ceasefire and resolve issues peacefully,” he added.