Sri Lanka, having concluded international ‘rice talks’ successfully, on Monday began finalizing the Memorandums of Understanding to proceed with the orders to purchase rice from Thailand and Myanmar. MoUs will be finalized soon and submitted to the two countries as soon as possible. Altogether the country expects to get a month’s supply of fresh rice tranche by the initiatives, the Minister said meeting with his top officials on Monday to get updates on rice tranche to be purchased from abroad to end the rice shortage. The purchases are made on the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena and the Cost of Living Committee of the Government. Accordingly, a MoU is being drawn by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to import 100,000 MT of par boiled (Nadu) rice and another 25,000 MT white raw rice from Thailand. Another MoU is being drawn to import 30,000 MT of white raw rice from Myanmar. Both these MoUs are Government to Government level. Another purchase with Indian suppliers under Government to Foreign Private Sector is being worked and prices are being negotiated for a huge 100,000 MT par boiled (Nadu) rice.