Cover news reporter Lai Fangjie intern Dai Jianglan
After working hard in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, for many years, Lu Zheng broke through the "golden period" of business, after he opened a Chinese restaurant with an annual profit of more than one million yuan, and also operated a jewelry store and a building materials factory, and now due to the impact of the epidemic and the tension in the country, the jewelry store is closed, and the restaurant has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and has not yet resumed work.
In a complex situation, do you want to go or stay? Lu Zhengchuang is ready to continue to wait and see, trying to find opportunities in the crisis. Fan Jinyue, who has also worked hard in Sri Lanka for more than ten years, also maintains a relatively optimistic attitude.
Sri Lanka Street View according to Xinhua News Agency
Status: Jewelry stores are closed
The Chinese restaurant has not yet resumed work
Lu Zhengchuang, as his name suggests, has the courage to not be afraid of heaven. He came to Sri Lanka as early as 2001, when the civil war was not over. He sees Sri Lanka as a wasteland to be rebuilt, with all walks of life full of opportunity potential. When the business was going well, he sold jewelry, building materials, and also ran a Chinese restaurant.
The Sunshine Garden Seafood Restaurant he runs has an annual profit of more than one million yuan before the epidemic. Diners on the food review website, the evaluation of the restaurant is good, "should be the best Chinese restaurant in Colombo, the dishes are very many, but also easy to find, I feel that the chef is a Sichuanese." ”
Cover News combing found that a recent comment from the restaurant stayed in January 2020. Affected by the epidemic, tourists have dropped sharply, and the restaurant has lost more than 500,000 yuan, so it has to suspend business and has not resumed work so far.
"I feel that the chaotic situation in Colombo will continue until the end of this year." In addition to chinese restaurants, Lu Zhengchuang's jewelry store was also forced to close at the beginning of the year, and only the building materials factory was still struggling to maintain. "Building materials factories are also facing the problem of raw materials, without diesel we can not deliver, raw materials can not be supplied, while there is no foreign exchange led to a decline in cement imports, cement is also in short supply."
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Wickremesinghe previously said that the unprecedented economic crisis would last at least until the end of next year, "we are now negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a bankrupt country, this is the fact and reality, next year will be quite painful, may not get better until 2024.")
People line up in front of a gas station in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, to buy kerosene. Photo by Xinhua News Agency: Ajit Pereira
Insufficient fuel makes it impossible to transport products
Insufficient foreign exchange has led to restrictions on the import of raw materials
"I chose to continue to start a business in Sri Lanka, mainly because I have been working here for more than ten years, and there are many familiar customers, and they also have the need to source products from China." In 2005, Fan Jinyue came to work in a factory in Sri Lanka, and in 2020, affected by the epidemic, he chose to start his own business and engage in import and export trade.
"I was going to do marine production in the near future, but due to lack of fuel, 75% of the fishermen can't go to sea, and the seafood can't be harvested, and it can't be done without production." Fan Jinyue is plagued by fuel shortages and sometimes wants to go out to run customers, but due to the general lack of fuel, employees of customer companies are unable to go to work due to limited transportation. Due to the lack of foreign exchange, his customers could not use the US dollar to purchase products from other countries, so Fan Jinyue's import and export trade was affected.
"I think there are two factors that have contributed to this economic crisis, the tourism industry has been hit hard and remittances have decreased, resulting in the depletion of foreign exchange." Fan Jinyue said that according to his understanding, Sri Lanka's imports last year were 18 billion US dollars, exports were 12 billion US dollars, and the difference between imports and exports was 6 billion, "Before it was also a few billion, you can also balance the foreign trade deficit through tourism and remittances, and there are some surpluses that can be used for infrastructure." Tourism has also been hit hard after the explosion in Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, and combined with the impact of the epidemic, he estimates that Sri Lanka's tourism earnings have lost at least $10 billion. Data reported by the World Wide Web shows that Sri Lanka's overseas remittance income reached $7.1 billion in 2020, falling to $5.49 billion in 2021.
Fan Jinyue (first from right) participates in the activities of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, distributing food to local families in need. Images courtesy of respondents
Lu Zhengchuang believes that the local government also lacks strong measures to deal with the crisis. "The government lacked a plan to respond to the crisis, and in the early stages of the crisis, the government did not develop a feasible plan to stimulate the economy."
In 2019, the Rajapaksa government implemented massive tax cuts that cost the country more than $1.4 billion a year in lost revenue, Xinhua reported. Another controversial policy is an attempt to ban the import of fertilizers, but with a massive reduction in rice harvests in 2021, Sri Lanka has had to spend money on food from overseas. Although the fertilizer ban was lifted in November last year, it has had an irreparable impact on the production of grain, tea and rubber.
Stay relatively optimistic And keep waiting and seeing
Look for opportunities in crises
Speaking of the future plans, Fan Jinyue said that he is still continuing to contact China to help customers purchase products, and he also maintains a relatively optimistic attitude, "I think we still have to find a way, there will still be opportunities in the crisis, not too pessimistic." ”
Lu Zhengchuang also said that he would continue to wait and see, waiting for the economic development strategy of the new government, and would really consider returning to China for development.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Abbevardna said on the 11th that the Sri Lankan parliament will elect a new president on the 20th of this month, and the new president will be responsible for forming a government with the participation of all parties.
[If you have a news thread, please report to us, once adopted, there is a fee reward.] Feed WeChat attention: ihxdsb, feed QQ: 3386405712]