Sri Lanka proposes privatizing national airline amid crisis

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new prime minister wants to privatize the country’s loss-making national airline as part of reforms aimed at solving the country worst economic crisis in decades. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says he plans to propose a special relief budget that will take the place of the development-oriented budget earlier approved for this year. It would channel all funds allocated for infrastructure development to public welfare. He says the country’s financial health is so poor that the government has been forced to print money to pay the salaries of government workers and buy other goods and services. The president appointed Wickremesinghe prime minister last Thursday in a bid to quell the island nation’s political and economic crisis.