Lanka president calls for diaspora investment

Sri Lanka marked its independence day yesterday with an appeal to its diaspora to send money home to overcome the island's worsening economic crisis and a pledge to protect foreign investments. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa urged millions of Sri Lankans abroad to invest their savings in their home country, which is facing its worst debt crisis since independence from Britain 74 years ago. "Expatriate Sri Lankans who provide foreign exchange to the country are a major resource to us," Rajapaksa said. "I invite all expatriate Sri Lankans to invest in their homeland." Colombo's foreign reserves, which stood at $7.5 billion when Rajapaksa took office in November 2019, have fallen by more than half, to $3.1 billion. Worker remittances, Sri Lanka's number one foreign currency source, fell nearly 60 percent in December.