JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has donated 3.1 tonnes of humanitarian aid, comprising of essential medicines and medical equipment worth 22.1 billion rupiah (US$1.6 million), to cash strapped Sri Lanka.
The first batch of humanitarian aid shipped on Thursday comprises eight cytostatic drugs and six medical devices worth 4.5 billion rupiah and the next shipment will be on May 8.
“Sri Lanka is an important partner for Indonesia and hopefully this aid will ease the burden on the Sri Lankan people,” Indonesia’s health ministry secretary-general Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha said in a statement today.
The aid handover ceremony was held at Soekarno-Hatta airport here on Thursday to the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Indonesia and ASEAN, Yasoja Gunasekera.
Nine Indonesian pharmaceutical and medical device companies donated the aid.
Sri Lanka is going through an economic crisis brought about by foreign currency shortages and it halted external debt repayment on April 12.-Bernama
