Michael Edward, the High Commissioner of New Zealand, gave a short comment on the vaccination program taking place in Sri Lanka. He gave the speech during a meeting with Prasanna Ranatunga, the tourism minister of Sri Lanka.
The minister said that most of the Sri Lanka citizens have received the vaccine. He briefed the New High Commissioner of New Zealand on some minor issues they experienced on their journey.
Michael promised the world that New Zealand will extend its maximum support to control and prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Sri Lanka. He complimented the nation for their good co-operation in their next project. There is a need to come up with a tourism program to benefit both countries. By doing this, they will improve the economy of the nation.
Covid-19 has had a bad effect on the economy of people. Since its eruption, many businesses closed down and resulted in a drop in the economy of all the countries. Both Sri Lanka and New Zealand imposed lockdown. Businesses were shut down, and everything in general stopped. These were the strict rules by WHO to stop the spread of Covid-19.
But since BioNTech started manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine, countries have opened the economy. As a result, people are back in business, although not fully. Private and public companies have managed to re-employ their workers to continue producing products. Currently, the rate of jobs exceeds the supply of employees. However, the issue is being resolved.
The vaccine companies have managed to distribute the drug to almost all countries. But most developed countries received higher priorities over other nations. They had the funds to purchase the expensive vaccine. Developing countries like Sri Lanka had to wait to get the remains. It’s when New Zealand comes in to help the nation acquire the drug.
This has created some strong bonds between the two nations. New Zealand is one of the leading countries when it comes to tourism. The industry contributes to almost 30% of their total foreign exchange. During the pandemic, none of the expected tourists could travel. Airways was shut down, hence fewer tourists in the nation. The country was hit badly by the pandemic. But this year, they have managed to get almost three-quarters of the average tourist. The High Commissioner confirmed that the entire hospitality and tourism industry will return to its normal position by the end of the year.
Mr. Edward Michael admitted that Sri Lanka is the perfect nation where they can form a union to bring more tourists. They want to influence Sri Lanka to become a modest nation. They have a lot of knowledge when it comes to tourists. The commissioner believes sharing of knowledge is an essential and powerful act.
In addition, he said that his country is willing to work with more nations apart from Sri Lanka. Their main objective is to control the civid19 pandemic that has affected the world at large. In addition, they want to focus on distributing more drugs to third-world countries, including those in Africa.
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