Rishad Negotiates With Ambassadors For Urgent Import of Rice

In order to keep the price of rice  stable and  without shortage, Ministry of   Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen  initiated  negotiations with the Ambassadors of  Pakistan , Indonesia and Thailand to import parboiled and sampa  rice  on an urgent basis .

He met the Ambassador at his Ministry along with his Secretary, Finance Ministry Director General , Chairman of Cooperative and Chairman of CWE .

He made  this request in accordance with the President’s direction to keep the prices of  rice on a stable manner. President directed me to negotiate with you at Government level and purchase the rice on an  urgent basis to keep the price of rice stable, he told Ambassadors . He appreciated the good bilateral relationship maintained between Srilanka and their countries and expressed his satisfaction. If the necessity arise you could open the door of the private sector to assist us in this venture . The Cooperative movement coming under my Ministry will play a vital role  and continued to keep in touch with this  urgent import of rice.

 Once your country’s approval is  obtained, our Ministry officials will follow the international open tender  procedure  and import rice after they visit your country, do quality test and obtain quality certificates. In the first instance we have decided to import 300 metric ton of parboiled and sampa rice.

 The Ambassadors  assured  to meet  President effort to keep  rice prices stable.