Govt. committed to developing SL economy: PM
Posted on February 16th, 2016
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today those who are paid to shout against the agreement with India will learn a lesson when the people get to the streets soon.
No one should waste time on unwanted things because the government will not stray from its journey towards developing Sri Lanka’s economy, myself, Minister S. B. Dissanayake and Deputy Minister Harsha De Silva will not deviate from our journey,” he said at Ape Gama during the launch of the systematic country diagnostic study by the World Bank Group.
He referred to the minister and the deputy minister because they were present at the launch.
The Prime Minister who insisted on a strong commitment from the state machinery said the government expected the effective use of funds allocated to each institution.
We expect results from public servants,” he said and urged the private sector to put its shoulder to the wheel instead of continuing a wait and see policy.
The Prime Minister said only ordinary people pay taxes and bear a great burden for the sake of the country. He said it was his generation which paid a host of taxes such as death duty, wealth tax and several other taxes while the present generation did not bear that much of a tax burden.
Besides, he said Sri Lanka should move away from the South-Asian way of thinking and adopt policies based on an East-Asian line of thinking. The Prime Minister said the government would ensure that money goes into the hands of the poor.
He said the government was focused on eradicating poverty, ensuing that the inflation rate is low, double the gross domestic product and make Sri Lanka a high-income-earning country by 2025. The Prime Minister said the World Bank would support the government to achieve these policies.(Yohan Perera)
February 16th, 2016 at 6:21 pm
Ranil’s goal for the country is commendable and welcome. However recent actions on the economic front and IMF warnings do not augur well for realisation of these economic goals.
Under the previous regime, Sri Lanka had built up foreign reserves up to US$8 billion and was still moving up. Within a the last year it is reported that the reserves has dropped to 7billion, rupee depreciated to Rs140 per US$, even with the massive drop in the cost of fuel imported by Sri Lanka in the last year.
Under the previous regime, Sri Lanka attracted major infrastructure development investments from foreign nations, especially from foreign countries like China and Japan. India was very slow to help and also focussed on the North and East. Previously the rupee was strong and per capita income went up to the level of a middle income nation and Sri Lanka was well on track to being a high-income-earning country, which Ranil states, his goal too. We need to support him, if the methods contemplated will be beneficial to Sri Lanka in the shorter, medium and longer terms.
However, how can we achieve these goals, if the business credibility of the nation is seriously damaged by defaulting on ongoing contracts like the Port City, which had been stopped and the country incurring unimaginable losses each day the project is delayed?
Also, how can the country progress and the government maintain credibility, if the reports on the last year’s apparently irregular Central Bank bond issue is suppressed, leaving room for more such irregular and questionable procedures being adopted in the future?
How can we progress if Ministers do not know how to put into good use the already completed new Hambantota Harbour and Mattala Airport? It had been reported one minister through utter ignorance had used a high tech equipment storage warehouse at Mattala to store paddy and thus caused major damage to this facility. Why cant we find competent ministers to run the ministries?
According to foreign news reports, Australia, a very rich nation with 20+ million people is considering blocking the hitherto given free access for jobs and business ventures to its brother nation and neighbour New Zealand, with only around 5 million population.
How is it going to benefit Sri Lanka, a middle income nation with 20+ million people, by opening its doors to India with over 1 billion people, with a high unemployment rate and looking for jobs for its people? What would be worse is, as questioned by these unions, if unqualified or less qualified Indian “professionals” flood the nation and push out frustrated Sri Lankan professionals to Western nations waiting for them with open arms.
These are some of the serious matters Sri Lanka should address if the hitherto healthy economy is not to collapse.
February 16th, 2016 at 6:35 pm
The World Bank Report also said that Sri Lanka needs EFFECTIVE Leadership.
Also stated that growth averaged 6% per year in the past DECADE, and poverty declined from 22.7% in 2002 to 6.1% in 2012/13.
The past DECADE was during the MR govt. time with EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP ….
Can Yahap match this Effective Leadership … ?
February 17th, 2016 at 4:11 am
“Also stated that growth averaged 6% per year in the past DECADE, and poverty declined from 22.7% in 2002 to 6.1% in 2012/13.”
There are about 2million SL expats working abroad. They all send money home. That is how the poverty reduced in SL. If four persons depend on each foreign worker then that is about 50% of the entire population.
What are the industries started by MR?. He only gave employments to unemployable graduates to sit under trees.
However lot of projects started with foreign loans during his time and a small percentage of it would have got into circulation in the country. Considering the debt trap SL got into it is not worth it.
The present set of ministers are also a clueless lot. Yesterday a minister who was answering questions from a Derana journo was not sure what the population of India is. He was telling it is 2 billion. How can we depend on such people to steer our country out of pitfalls.