Co-Cabinet Spokesman Udaya Gammanpila said there was no basis to the rumour that the country is at risk due to Ukrainian tourists in the country.
Speaking at the weekly Cabinet media briefing held at the Government Information Department yesterday he said international airports in the country will open from January 21.
The Minister said the country needs foreign exchange and that tourism is important for earning foreign exchange. The decision to lockdown Ukraine was taken after the arrival of tourists into Sri Lanka and the situation has changed since the arrival of tourists in Sri Lanka and no one has come to Sri Lanka since the closure of Ukraine, the Minister said.
He said that there was a huge gap between Sri Lanka’s export earnings and import expenditure and that the cost of imports will be around USD 20 billion when export earnings were USD 11 billion.
The Minister further said that this is possible mainly through foreign investments, tourism and remittances.
The Minister said that the government had faced a foreign exchange deficit on the one hand and a crisis of over three million direct and indirect jobs on the other.
Due to these reasons, a pilot project to bring Ukrainian tourists to Sri Lanka was launched and by January 8, 1,004 Ukrainian tourists had arrived in Sri Lanka.
