Chinese businessmen staying in Sri Lanka: Jewelry shop shuts down Chinese restaurants to find opportunities in crisis

Cover Journalist Lai Fangjie Intern Dai Jianglan

For many years in Coronapo, Capital, the capital of Sri Lanka, Lu Zheng made a "golden period" that he had experienced business. The annual profit of the Chinese restaurant he opened before was more than one million yuan. He also operated jewelry shops and building materials factories at the same time. The impact of the tension situation, the jewelry shop was closed, and the restaurant lost hundreds of thousands of hundreds of thousands.

In the complicated situation, is it going or staying? Lu Zhengchi was ready to continue watching and trying to find opportunities in the crisis. Fan Jinyue, who has also struggled in Sri Lanka for more than ten years, also maintained a relatively optimistic attitude.

Sri Lanka Street View according to Xinhua News Agency

Status: Jewelry shop shutdown

The Chinese restaurant has not been resumed yet

Lu Zhengchu, as his name, has the courage that he is not afraid of it. He came to Sri Lanka as early as 2001, when the domestic war was not over. What he fancy is the potential of Sri Lanka Baibai, and all walks of life are full of opportunities. When the business goes well, he sells jewelry and building materials and also runs Chinese restaurants.

The annual profit before the sunflower of the sun garden in his operation is more than one million yuan. On the food review website, the diners have good evaluation of the restaurant. "It should be the best Chinese restaurant in Colombo. There are many dishes. It is also easy to find. It feels like the chef is from Sichuan."

The cover news was combed and found that a recent comment on the restaurant stayed in January 2020. Affected by the epidemic, tourists decreased sharply, and the restaurant lost more than 500,000 yuan. It had to suspend business and did not resume work so far.

"I feel that the chaotic situation of Colombo will continue until the end of this year." In addition to Chinese restaurants, Lu Zhengyin's jewelry shop was also forced to close at the beginning of the year, and only the building materials factories were still difficult to maintain. "The building material factory is also facing raw materials. We cannot deliver the goods without diesel, nor can the raw materials be supplied. At the same time, there is no foreign exchange that causes the amount of cement to be reduced, and the cement is also scarce."

According to media reports, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Victormaxa said before that the economic crisis that had never been seen before will continue until the end of next year. The fact is also reality. It will be quite painful next year, and it may not improve until 2024. "

The people lined up in front of a gas station in Coronapu, Sri Lanka to wait for kerosene. Photo according to Xinhua News Agency Agit Pereala

Insufficient fuel causes product transportation to be unable to perform

Insufficient foreign exchange leads to restricted raw materials imports

"I chose to continue to start a business in Sri Lanka, mainly because I worked here for more than ten years. There are many familiar customers. They also have the needs of purchasing products from China." In 2005, Fan Jinyue came to work in Sri Lanka's factory. The epidemic affected, he chose to start a business and engage in import and export trade.

"I have planned to have a sea of ​​consumers recently, but due to insufficient fuel, 75%of fishermen cannot go out to sea, and seafood cannot be collected, and there is no output and cannot be done." Fan Jinyue faced the distress caused by insufficient fuel, and sometimes wanted to go out out. Running customers, but due to the lack of fuel, employees of customer companies cannot go to work due to limited transportation. Due to insufficient foreign exchange, his customers cannot use the US dollar to purchase products from other countries, so Fan Jinyue's import and export trade has been affected.

"I think there are two factors that lead to this economic crisis. The tourism industry has been severely damaged and reduced by overseas Chinese exchange, which leads to the exhaustion of foreign exchange." Fan Jinyue said that according to his understanding of Sri Lanka's imports last year The difference between 6 billion was between? "Previously, it was billions of billions. You can also balance foreign trade deficits through tourism and overseas Chinese exchange. There are some surplus to engage in infrastructure." After the explosion of Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, the tourism industry was also in the tourism industry. Affected by the severe damage, and the impact of the epidemic, he estimated that Sri Lanka's foreign exchange was at least $ 10 billion. Data reported by the Global Network show that in 2020, Sri Lanka's overseas Chinese exchange revenue reached US $ 7.1 billion, and fell to $ 5.49 billion in 2021.

Lu Zhengchi believes that the local government lacks effective measures when dealing with the crisis. "The government lacks a plan to deal with the crisis. In the early days of the crisis, the government did not formulate feasible plans to stimulate the economy."

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Lajapaksa government implemented large -scale tax cuts in 2019, resulting in the national loss of more than $ 1.4 billion in annual losses. Another controversial policy was to try to prohibit import fertilizer, but with the large area of ​​rice in 2021, Sri Lanka had to spend blood purchase of food from overseas. In November of last year, although the fertilizer ban was revoked, it had an irreparable impact on food, tea, and rubber production.

Keep relatively optimistic and watch

Find opportunities in crisis

Speaking of the plans later, Fan Jinyue said that he was still in contact with China to help customers purchase products. He also maintained a relatively optimistic attitude. "I think I still have to find a way. There will still be a chance in the crisis. ","

Lu Zhengyin also said that he would continue to wait and see and wait for the economic development strategy of the new government.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Sri Lanka Speaker Abvadner said on the 11th that the Sri Lanka will elected a new president on the 20th of this month, and the new president will be responsible for the establishment of the government participating in each party.

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