People purchase essential food items in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo: AFP

The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) vowed on Tuesday to offer emergency humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka, according to Xu Wei, a spokesperson for the agency. 

China has noticed economic difficulties facing Sri Lanka, and is willing to help the country to confront current difficulties as a long-standing friendly neighbor, said Xu. He believed the government and people of Sri Lanka will overcome temporary difficulties and secure the stable development of both the economy and society. 

Sri Lanka, an island nation of 22 million, faces an unprecedented economic crisis this year, with $8.6 billion worth of debt payments due in 2022.

"Aside from the large hole in the country's financial system, the most severe shortages of supplies are essential goods and energy sources for power generation," Liu Zhongyi, secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Liu suggested that China's emergency humanitarian assistance from CIDCA might be support of materials. He noted that Sri Lanka's other neighbor India has agreed to offer financial support and the country is also negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for assistance.

Global Times