Remittance from the Sri Lankan expatriate workers have gone down by 40% during recent times. -Ravi K

More garment factories closing down: Ravi
Remittance from the Sri Lankan expatriate workers have gone down by 40% during recent times. (Tamil boycott are also another reason-T4J).


By Yohan Perera

UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said that the remittance from the Sri Lankan expatriate workers have gone down by 40% during recent times.

Mr. Karunanayake made this point at a public gathering in Boralasgmuwa yesterday.

He explained that the reason for this is the collapse of the Middle Eastern economics brought on by the global economic recession.

Painting a grimmer picture of the Sri Lankan economy he said the number of garment factories in the country had gone down from 732 prior to 1994 to 244 as of today. He warned that this number would go down to 200 in a few months time.

He said the plantation industry is also facing a similar situation with tea, rubber and coconut drawing low prices.

“This shows that the cat had been let out of the bag though the government is claiming that Sri Lanka has not been affected by the global economic crisis though it is being covered up,” he pointed out.

Referring to the Rs 1.9 billion IMF bail out, Mr. Karunanayake alleged that the government had already bowed down to the conditions laid out by the donor agency.