Sri Lanka, a small country with beautiful scenery in the Indian Ocean and rich in black tea, is about to go bankrupt. Only $300 million of the external reserves of only $2.3 billion can be used, and the external debt to be repaid this year is $7.3 billion. It can be said that financial bankruptcy is almost settled. Needless to say, Sri Lanka is too poor to afford printing paper.
As a result, Sri Lanka launched the Golden Visa Program, foreigners who deposit $100,000 can get a ten-year visa, and foreigners who buy more than $75,000 in real estate can get a five-year visa. Officially, this is to attract foreign investment and a confident plan.
In this regard, I can only say that Sri Lanka's fiscal bankruptcy is not without reason. When are you still feeling so good about yourself? Officials themselves find ten- and five-year visas tempting. But in the eyes of a foreigner like me, it makes no sense. This kind of golden visa is purely the kind that takes money to float in the water and can trap yourself.
I don't know if their officials have ever wondered why foreigners should save money in Sri Lanka? Here we will not discuss the reasons for sri Lanka's crisis, let's simply talk about whether this golden visa is useful.
Let's briefly analyze, what is the purpose of foreigners spending this money in Sri Lanka? Either for better enjoyment or for more money to come back.
Let's start with the first one, for better enjoyment. Sri Lanka has some tourist resources such as diving, elephants, alpine tea plantations, sea trains and much more. But these are not irreplaceable and exclusive resources. There are too many places to dive, the Maldives, many countries in Southeast Asia, no problem, you have enough money, do submarines. Elephants are not a Sri Lankan specialty, and they are also visited at the zoo, and they cannot be bought back to stew or used as pets.
Alpine tea garden, in Chinese, look at this, then there is no need to go to Sri Lanka, China is not lacking. Sea train well, this is all a project that is enough to be addicted, who has nothing to do with this every day to play? These Sri Lankan tourism resources, a temporary visa for more than ten days, a lap is enough. Besides, now sri Lanka is in short supply of food and medicine, there is still a power outage, and the basic living conditions cannot be guaranteed. Enjoying self-masochism? Spending that much money on a ten-year visa, or buying a house, is a joke. Unless your head is caught in the door, why spend the money?
Speaking of the second, this golden visa cost money, can you earn more money? Of course, it is impossible, spending this money, just saying that there is a ten-year life period, it is a beginner, if you want to do business, you have to continue to invest money. Want to work? That's probably too much for you to think about. The country is already in crisis, the unemployment rate is naturally high, the natives are not working, you are a foreigner, find a chance to earn money, I am afraid it is very small.
A friend might say, didn't he say to save a hundred thousand dollars? No flowers. Save money, you can take it. Theoretically, this is the case, but if you look at his foreign exchange reserves and foreign debt, it is easy to deposit this money, withdraw it, and it is estimated that there is no hope in a short time. Besides, having said all that, the country is immediately facing bankruptcy, bankrupt state finances, and still thinking of withdrawing money from him?
Unless he turns on the printing machine to print it for you. The hundred thousand dollars are deposited, and the meat bun hits the dog is a certainty. So here we say, is to spend a hundred thousand dollars. Or the previous reason, Sri Lankan society has been unstable, food, medicine and energy are not available, demonstrations continue, who knows whether the next will fall into the whole social riot model?
Judging from the experience of riots in other countries, foreign investors in rioting countries have not had a good end in the past riots. It is still good to smash and rob, even if you are afraid that your life will not necessarily be saved. In foreign investment, safety is the first priority. Sri Lanka now lacks a sense of security and is simply not suitable for investment.
So, this golden visa, just a gimmick, will not play any role in Sri Lanka, which is in crisis? In this crisis, China lent him money, and India also provided supplies. That is all about saving the emergency and not saving the poor, and in the long run it depends on how the government of the country itself saves itself. Give them a trick and stop thinking about foreigners' wallets.
First do a good job in agriculture, and food is the sky. The food self-sufficiency rate is not enough, and everything is empty talk. Take Israel, for example, a small country in the middle of the desert, but has developed a desert agriculture that the whole world is amazed by. Israelis are very profitable, why do they have to spend so much money on desert agriculture. The cost of agricultural products is certainly not as cheap as direct imports.
Because the Israelites thought very clearly, they could not build a nation when they were hungry. World trade, not all the time, is when you have money to buy food.