Asia

Colombo, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency citing “public security and the protection of public order and for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.” It will come into effect on May 6 at midnight. The move comes after massive protests across the island nation demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa and the entire government over the economic crisis in the country. The first state of emergency was declared on April 1, 2022. Trade unions staged a nationwide strike demanding his resignation over the crisis. Over 2,000 trade unions participated in today’s nationwide hartal and strike against the President, Prime Minister, and the government, Colombo Page reported. All Ceylon Transport...

Colombo, Sri Lanka: Expressing grave concern over President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s declaration of a state of emergency, Sri Lankan Bar Association urged him to revoke the decree while pointing out that stifling public protest is not a solution to the crisis. This comes at a time when crisis-hit Sri Lanka on Friday declared a state of emergency after the crippling strike and protest over the ballooning external debt for the second time in five weeks. The BASL has asked the President to explain the reason for his decision and requested him to ensure that the fundamental rights of the people of Sri Lanka are not violated, reported Colombo Page. The Bar Association in its statement said, “We call upon His Excellency to revoke the proclamation declaring a state of emergency and ...

ISLAMABAD:  The previous government has left economic mines for the present government and that is why it is taking time to deal with it. In addition, the previous government deliberately planned to reduce oil and gas in the country to tarnish the image of the new government, but their decision is also hurting the people, said Dr Murtaza Mughal, President PEW. He said that despite the agreement with the IMF, the government was not ready to withdraw the oil subsidy as it would provoke a public backlash. For keeping fuel prices capped at current levels for the next fortnight, the cash-strapped government will have to pay Rs72.33/litre on diesel and Rs30.31/litre on petrol as price differential claim to the oil sector, denting the national kitty by another Rs40 billion which is ...

In recent years, as part of its attempt to curb or impede China's ascent, the US government has imposed a slew of regulations and penalties on Chinese technology firms. According to a China Development Institute study, between January 2017, when the Trump admin took office, and June 2021, when the Biden administration passed the U. S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA), the United States Congress, government, and key think tanks issued 209 bills, policies, and reports concerning science and technology policies toward China. Sanctions on Chinese high-tech firms, regulations over critical cutting-edge technology, and curbs on STEM talent training are examples of such measures. Huawei bears the brunt of the criticism as one of China's most renowned communications equipment mak...

China has delivered a confidential shipment of anti-aircraft to the Serbian military. Accordingto the report, there’s armed build up in the Balkans in the midst of war in Ukraine couldjeopardize the dainty peace of the region.According to the report, six Chinese military marking cargo planes have landed at the Belgradecivilian airport carrying surface to air missiles for the Serbian military. Though, Serbia has notgiven any formal response to the report of shipment. But this is not the first time earlier Serbiahas bought attack drones from China.The images were procured from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. Armed delivery was also doneto two NATO nations Turkey and Bulgaria; this highlights China’s increasing global reach.As stated by the Warzone online magazine ‘the Chinese Y-20 flew in ...

The sustained inflation rates and the ever-mounting evidence of China’s monetary involvementin triggering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left a sour taste in the mouths of investors. Notto mention, the imposed sanctions on Russia from nearly ever country in the West hasconfirmed that diplomatic ties mean nothing and provide no stability. Changing geopoliticalfacets in Russia and China means that more and more global investors are leaving, fearing theworst. But the war isn’t the only reason that investors are choosing to flee the scene.China’s tactic of increasing their bond return rates proved to be unsuccessful in capturing themarket. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 lockdowns in about 70 Chinese cities has lefta mark on the economy as well. With production shut down in China’s 13 m...

ISLAMABAD: The newly formed Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif mentioned that the country’s economic situation is so detreated that even defence expenditure was fulfilled by loans. “Before the PTI government, many other expenditures have been born through debts money, but in the last regime most of the defence expenditures were met through loans,” the prime minister said while speaking at the inauguration of the mass transit bus project on Peshawar Mor to Islamabad International Airport. “The is an alarming situation in which the country cannot afford inordinate delays in development projects which are executed by means of loans,” he added. He, however, said the journey of progress of Pakistan had resumed after the four years of halted development during the PTI tenure...

Islamabad, Pakistan: Experts had urged Shehbaz to increase oil prices to avoid the swelling price differential claims that accumulated to around PKR 60 billion in only one month of April this year, the Tribune report added. The newly elected prime minister was also informed that there would be no protests if the oil prices were increased. However, protests would start if diesel was not available in the market due to the poor financial health of the oil industry. The Pakistani publication said Shehbaz had refused to increase the oil prices despite the grave situation of the oil industry. The Pakistan State Oil (PSO), earlier, had made an attempt to import diesel by floating a tender but no trader participated. It had arranged one diesel cargo at the highest premium rate of USD 13 ...

Colombo, Sri Lanka: The onset of Covid and the consequent collapse of the tourism sector are considered to be the immediate reasons for Sri Lankan economic woes. The economic crisis, being the worst in decades, has put the country on hold in every sense. The Island nation will take time to recover from this economic crisis as the country is under Chinese loans. As per the South Asian Tribune, in the past, under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency in 2005, the government had aspired to turn Sri Lanka into another Singapore by constructing state-of-the-art infrastructure and ports. But the allure of Chinese loans dashed any such hope, and today Sri Lanka is hard-pressed to repay loans to the tune of $45 billion, out of which it owes China $8 billion, almost one-sixth of its total external deb...

Colombo, Sri Lanka: Jayasinghe had handed over his letter of resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In a letter, he said that the gas crisis in the country cannot be resolved at the institution level of Litro Gas. He further stated that they need the support of those people who are involved in the overall economic structure of the country. The chairman of Litro Gas Company stated that due to the previous authorities in the institution responsible for the management of the public finances and regulation of the country’s financial management negligence and carelessness, the people suffered. He also said that the institution failed to implement the recommendations required to resolve this crisis easily. Litro recently decided to suspend gas distribution until the 17th d...