{"id":105357,"date":"2020-08-10T23:30:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T05:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105357"},"modified":"2020-08-10T04:01:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T11:01:16","slug":"a-humble-request-to-his-excellency-our-prime-minister-mr-mahinda-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/10\/a-humble-request-to-his-excellency-our-prime-minister-mr-mahinda-rajapaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"A humble request to His Excellency our Prime Minister Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>By Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>At the auspicious moment this morning on the ninth of August 2020,\nwhen our Prime Minister is being inaugurated it is my humble request that he\nconsiders the full development of the Hambantota District and a Youth\nDevelopment Programme for special implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hambantota District has been a&nbsp;\ndistrict where I did work long ago. I have been struck with the\nsincerity of its people and their sufferings. My first novel, Mukulita Piyumo\nAyi Vana Meda Me details the travails and tribulations of its innocent\npeople.&nbsp; I have hoped that someday the\npeople will be delivered from their poverty. My Paper tells it all. I propose\nthe development of its agriculture and industry. These thoughts come in my\nPaper: Mattala Airport is not for sale.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The youth of a country has to be the prime concern of any\nGovernment. I had the opportunity to beat hollow the ILO, the world reputed\norganization, when I worked in Bangladesh as a consultant to the Ministry of\nLabour and Youth way back in 1982. When the Military Government of General\nErshard took over the country he was disillusioned with the work done by the\nMinistry of Youth Development where I served as the Consultant. The&nbsp; Minister for Labour and Manpower in his\nGovernment, the Hon Aminul Islam,&nbsp; Air\nVice Marshall ordered me, What can you contribute for Bangladesh?\u201d It was\ndelivered in a vein implying that foreign consultants were non grata. I\nreplied: Please consider approving a new self employment programme to enable\nthe 40,000 youths we trained in vocations annually.\u201d The Secretary to the\nTreasury the Highest Officer in the land objected stating that the ILO had\nfailed miserably to establish a self employment programme in the earlier three\nyears and said that self employment was not something that could be achieved\nand that it would&nbsp; inevitably end in a\nwaste of funds. I vehemently contested this statement. A two hour verbal duel\nensued with my providing details of how it can be done while he contested every\nidea. This slang battle went on for over two full hours, with the Hon Minister\npainstakingly listening making notes.&nbsp;\nThe Minister finally had heard enough and ordered us to stop the verbal\nbattle. Then he ordered. I approve this Advisor implementing a Self Employment\nProgramme for our beloved country and I look forward to see it being done. He\nhas convinced me.\u201d&nbsp; The Secretary to the\nTreasury stumped at one stating that he will not provide any funds to which I\npromptly replied that I needed no funds more than what was approved on the\nyouth training budget. I requested approval to find savings within our approved\nbudget and make variations and rewrite the remits of officers. He approved my\nrequest. My task was to design and implement a self employment programme and\nalso train Bangladesh officers to continue it after my two year assignment was\nover.&nbsp; The rest is history, Today it is a\nProgramme that is on going, This Programme is today the premier programme the\nworld has known and has guided over three million youths to become self\nemployed. This Programme is today the premier programme of youth development\nthe world has known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I look forward to see two major programmes from the Government of\nPresident Gotabhaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I enclose my Papers for kind consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-lankaweb-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"6QbC9BtTFP\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/10\/mattala-airport-is-not-for-sale\/\">Mattala Airport is not for sale<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Mattala Airport is not for sale&#8221; &#8212; LankaWeb.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/10\/mattala-airport-is-not-for-sale\/embed\/#?secret=uAjHPpzCIC#?secret=6QbC9BtTFP\" data-secret=\"6QbC9BtTFP\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mattala Airport is not for sale<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">By Garvin Karunaratne&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has made the difficult decision\nnot to sell the Mattala Airport to India.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the right decision\nand he deserves to be congradulated.&nbsp;<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wrote about how the Mattala Airport and the Port of Hambantota\nhave to be activated back in 2014. That Paper is annexed because every detail\nof what I then wrote will hold good for today. Nothing happened in 2014 and we\nlost the Port during the regime of the UNP.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me hope that the contents of this Paper will reach our leaders\nPresident Gotabhaya and Prime Minister Mahinda. To make the Mattala Airport\npay&nbsp;&nbsp;is very simple.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Firstly we must understand our resources.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Chena\ncultivators in Hambantota and Moneragala have to be activated to plant melon,\nred pumkin, ash pumkin. A Marketing Department has to be re established with\ntwo of their earlier programmes- the vegetable and fruit purchasing scheme and\nthe Cannery.&nbsp;&nbsp;The MD can be created overnight. The cost of creating\nit can be recouped within the very first year from the profits that come in by\nthe purchase of veg and fruit that is supplied to the Cannery.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Cannery has to be set up. A medium scale Cannery has to be\nimported and assembled. My take is that it can be done within three to four\nmonths judging at the speed I worked at Matara in 1971..&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The produce is already there the chena cultivators will produce\nall the Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin we need and Melon to make all the fruit Juice\nand Jam and within one year we will be self sufficiuent in Jam and Juice. The\nforeign exchange we spend to get imports of Jam and Juice today will easily\nmatch the production we make in the very first year. We can grow Tomatoes and\nbe self sufficient in items like Tomatoe Sauce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we can find the equal of Assistant Commissioiner Oswald\nTillekeratne&nbsp;&nbsp;we can even export pineapple. He was in charge of the\nCannery. We then exported 8% of our pineapple products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have seen children in Lunugamvehera running behind my car to\nsell us mangoes. Our crop of Mangoes is vast and half goes waste as we pluck to\nthe ground.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mattala Airport is to be used to export the products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is easily the way ahead. Someone in the Administrative\nService has to be put in charge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there is none to bell the cat I can undertake, though lingering\nin my Eighties I can undertake that job.. A place in the Administrative Service\nor an assignment will do that trick. Establishing a Marketing Department, a\nCannery and getting it going will be far easier a task than establishing the\nYouth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh which I did in 1983 when working\nas a consultant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If anyone confronts and tells that this cannot be done. I will be\nthere if intimated.- (garvin_karunaratne@ hotmail.com)&nbsp;&nbsp;Once I had a\ntwo hours&#8217; duel with the highest officer in Bangladesh- the Secretary to the\nTreasury who contested my statement that I will establish a self employment\nprogramme. He quoted the International Labour Organization\u2019s failure to\nestablish a self employment programme after trying for three years and getting\ndown experts from all over. The Minister who presided at our duel Air Vice\nMarshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and Manpower was convinced of my\narguments and immediately approved my establishing a self employment programme.\nAn entire Department of Youth Development took orders from me and within\nnineteen months I established the programme and also trained the staff to continue\nit. Today that Programme is the premium employment creation programme in the\nworld and has by now guided three million youths to become self employed.\nEstablishing a Marketing Department and a Cannery is a far simpler task. If I\nhad failed I would have been court marshalled for wasting funds, as it was a\nmilitary government&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will be a pleasure to work for my Motherland. and I am dead\ncertain that the task of establishing a Cannery can be accomplished and our\ncountry can also be self sufficient in all jam, Juice, Sauce and many more\nitems that are imported today.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Rural Renaissance in the\nOffing<\/strong><br>\nPosted on January 12th, 2014 in Lanka Web&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>By Garvin Karunaratne<\/em>&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>My travel to Kataragama in December 2013 took me to the Mattala\nMahinda Rajapaksa Airport and via the new road that is being built through\nLunugamvehera Tank to Kataragama.&nbsp; .&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have worked stationed within Hambantota for over a year working\nin the Agrarian Services and Marketing Department and have covered Hambantota\nfrom Matara for another two years working on the Paddy Purchasing Scheme of the\nAgrarian Services Department and the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme of\nthe Marketing Department. .&nbsp; I lived in a chummery with&nbsp; Vet Surgeon\nBalachandran and Assistant Commissioner Nanayakkara. We had to have a bath\nunder the street tap at night or have a swim in the sea. Hambantota was easily\nthe worst district I worked in.&nbsp; There was hardly any decent restaurant\nother than the Rest House . That District has to be developed. The travails of\nthe colonists at Meegahajandura detailed in my novel Mukulita Piyumo Ayi Vana\nMeda Me\u201d\u009d(Godages) and the poverty of the fishing settlements the subject\nof my novel Landa Liyange Sihina Atare\u201d\u009d(Godages) have to cease someday&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My work has taken me to remote areas covered by the paddy\npurchasing unit- the cooperative societies that were seething with life. In my\neighteen years\u2019 of life in the Administrative Service I have seen the pulse of\nthe people in the Dry Zone marching from a peasant economy to a commercial\neconomy but the neglected areas were many. While the Mattala Airport has the\ncapability of breathing life to the Hambantota District in particular&nbsp; and\nthe entire South,&nbsp; the Lunugamwehera- Kataragama Road will breathe life to\na section of villages that were hitherto away from communication links with the\nrest of the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To me the manner in which President Rajapaksa has dealt with\nforeign aid- in using it to fund development projects- like the Mattala\nAirport, the Hambantota Port&nbsp; the Lunugamwhera Road- the massive highways\ntells me of a shift in the manner of using foreign aid. Hitherto, since the IMF\ntook over the development of our country in 1977 and dictated us to follow the\nfreemarket and the liberalization of foreign exchange, taking away the handling\nof foreign exchange that comes into the country from the hands of the sovereign\ngovernment into the hands of the banks, the multinationals and their salesmen.&nbsp;\nInstead of using&nbsp; the foreign aid and the&nbsp; foreign currency that we\nearn&nbsp; for the development of the country and its masses we used it since\n1977 to import everything&nbsp; for the rich in terms of luxury imports, to\nfund the education of the rich children overseas, for luxury cruises and\nendless foreign travel for the rich. The foreign aid and foreign income was\nused to satisfy the luxury craze of a miniscule section of our population\ninstead of being use for the masses. The new Strategy of President Rajapaksa&nbsp;\nheralds to me a shift in the use of foreign exchange.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 1977&nbsp; foreign aid was not used for the masses except\nin&nbsp; the Mahaweli Project, the brain child of the LTTE assassinated\nMinister Gamini Dissanayake.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving along the Lumugamvehera- Kataragama mud track- which was\nbeing built, I saw mangoes in&nbsp; plenty on the trees and the people, dressed\nin rags&nbsp; in their attempt to get some income&nbsp; chased behind my car\nwith a few mangoes for sale.&nbsp; It was a sheer attempt to find an income.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every year I spend a few months in the motherland I love. At\nKatunayake Airport&nbsp; I slump into a roadworthy rental car sent to the\nKatunayake&nbsp; Airport by King Rent a Car at Battaramulla and clock a few\nthousand miles driving down the roads I drove once as an administrative officer.\n&nbsp;Then I had the ability to listen to the people and do something for them.\nIn&nbsp; charge of the Tripoli Market, the headquarters of the Vegetable and\nFruit Marketing Scheme I often ordered a fleet of lorries to Producer fairs\nwhere the entire produce was bought. In Colombo Oswald Tilekeratne another\nAssistant Commissioner in charge of the Cannery turned Red Pumpkin&nbsp; into\nGolden Melon Jam, Ash Pumpkin into Silver Melon Jam. Now I listen to them and\nwrite about them in my endless Papers and novels, hoping that my writing will\nreach the eyes of someone in power who will be spurred to action.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My recent travel tells me that easily half the crop of mangoes\ngoes waste today.&nbsp; The Marketing Department Cannery established by us,\nwhen I served as an Assistant Commissioner, enabled that Department to offer\n&nbsp;floor prices for Red Pumpkin and Ash Pumpkin. Mangoes and Oranges were\nused to make fruit juice. Now the Cannery&nbsp; came under the axe of the IMF\nin 1978 by&nbsp; the executioner of the Third World, the IMF that decided that\nthe Public Sector should not do commerce and&nbsp; the Cannery was privatized.\nThe people of the Dry Zone that drew high incomes for their produce now cannot\nsell their produce.&nbsp; I have repeatedly suggested that Canneries be opened\nin Tissamaharama and Dambulla and Anuradhapura to make fruit juice. We have\nmelon in plenty and tomatoes that go waste. Now we import fruit juice, tomatoe\nsauce and jam from Developed countries like the USA, Australia. All this while\nour produce is wasted; our people have no incomes. The IMF strategy is for\nstructuring the Third World to contribute to the Developed Country&nbsp; and we\nhave to follow the IMF because we are an indebted country. That was the legacy\nof the UNP that accepted the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF.&nbsp;\nWhy do we not realize the folly of following the IMF following it so far for\nover three decades.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me hope that this Writing gets to the eyes of someone in\npower, The building of the Port, the Airport and the Highways is the first part\nof progress. Let me hope that Canneries will be set up to bring incomes to the\nmasses that produce. Let me see Sinharaja Water for sale in Colombo. The\ndevelopment infrastructure of Canneries, Small industries that was all\nabolished by the IMF from 1977 by the United National Party has to be set up\nonce again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This can be done fast- in a few months if the Government Agents\nare activated. We established The Matara Mechanised Boatyard that made 40 foot\nseaworthy fishing boats and&nbsp; Coop Crayon, a crayon&nbsp; factory that\nsupplied high quality crayons for a tenth of our requirements in 1971\nwithin&nbsp; three months. Our administrators can do that job. They are used to\nit. There was one of us that made Paper at Kotmale. Now we export Waste\nCardboard some 30,000 tons every month to India and buy Paper in return.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That senario must cease to bring employment and incomes to our\npeople. It is heartening to note that the 2014 Budget&nbsp; is emphasizing\nimport substitution, to make everything imported in Sri Lanka bringing\nemployment and incomes to Sri Lankan youth and not creating employment and\nincomes to people in countries like the USA and Britain who are ranged against\nus to take our leaders to the War Crimes,&nbsp; Coop Crayon, the Crayon factory\nthat I as the Government Agent and Sumanapala Dahanayake the member of parliament\nstruggled and established in Deniyaya in 1971 tells us that we can succeed in\nimport substitution. The quality of the crayons made by Coop Crayon equalled\nthe quality of Crayola and when I and Sumanapala showed the crayons we made to\nthe then Minister of Industries Mr. Subasinghe he was surprised and readily\nvolunteered to preside at the ceremony to open sales. That art of making\ncrayons was unearthed in the science lab at Rahula College. Matara&nbsp; in\n1971 by&nbsp; my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando working with science teachers.\nThat success itself tells me that Sri Lanka can succeed in import substitution.\nBut the full blast of the IMF and their lackeys the Pathfinder Foundation in\nSri Lanka and their mouthpieces the economists shout from the tree tops that import\nsubstitution will derail our economic effort.(See Sunday Times 29\/12). Let us\nask any of them whether they have ever established any industry, import\nsubstitution or otherwise in their entire life. Let them tell us of what\nindustries they have established before advising.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They all the economists as well as the IMF forget the man at the\nhelm , the personage of extreme courage who delivered Sri Lanka from terrorism,\na task that every Superpower&nbsp; said we could not ever achieve.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me live in hope that President Rajapaksa will now take full\ncharge of the economic development of Sri Lanka. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Youth Self Employment Program of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Youth\nDevelopment where I was working as a two year consultant from the Commonwealth\nSecretariat was attending to traditional youth work and providing skills\ntraining to 40,000 youths annually. The Military Government that took over in\n1982 expressed dissatisfaction with the programmes and at an evaluation,\npresided over by Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and\nManpower,&nbsp; I was questioned as to what\ncontribution I could make for Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I replied that it would be\nideal to have a Self Employment Program which will guide and train the\nyouths&nbsp; undertaking skills programs to\nbecome self employed. Then most of the trained youths remained unemployed. The\nSecretary to the Ministry of&nbsp; Finance,\nthe highest official in the land, objected, stating that this was something\nthat can never be achieved because the ILO had miserably failed to establish a\nself employment program in Tangail in the earlier three years. The Secretaries\nof the Finance and other Ministries strongly objected, stating that it would\nend up in a waste of funds and also that the Youth Ministry should not be\nentrusted with the task of creating employment opportunities. I argued that\nthough the ILO failed, I had the ability to&nbsp;\nsucceed because I had established many employment projects in my work in\nSri Lanka. I also argued that youth work should concentrate on skills training\nand guiding the trained to establish enterprises. The Hon Minister listened\ncarefully to an easy two hours\u2019 arguments between me and the Secretaries of\nsome Line Ministries. Finally he ordered all of us to shut up and asked the\nSecretaries for the number of drop outs of the education system in any one\nyear, those who would be searching for employment without any qualification.\nThe answer was in the millions. Then he asked for the number of youths who\nwould be guided to become self-employed through Government Programs. The answer\nwas none. He immediately ruled that I should be allowed to establish a youth\nself employment program. The Secretary to the Treasury immediately vetoed it by\nstating that there were no funds. I immediately said that I needed no funds,\nbut authority should be granted for the Ministry to re deploy officers, redraft\ntheir work remits and to find savings within the skills training budgets for\nexpenses on holding workshops to train and guide youths to become self\nemployed. The Hon Minister granted that request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Labour and\nManpower got cracking the very next day, identifying key areas where the work\nwill commence, drafting training schedules to train the staff who attended to\nskills training on how to guide the youths to make their own assessment of how\nthey can be self employed in their habitat. The Ministry took over elements of\nnational planning, in identifying areas where there was a potential for youths\nto become self employed. I with a core of officials addressed the 40,000 youths\nin training on identifying areas where they could generate incomes,&nbsp; and how they should draft plans to be self\nemployed. It was to be a family basis where the parents and elders of the\nyouths were also consulted. All skills training institutes were activated till\nlate at night to enable youths to utilize the machinery to make something\nthat&nbsp; could be sold. What they made was evaluated\nat the next days training and this took on a process of training to make\nmarketable products. The three Livestock and Poultry Training Institutes of the\nMinistry established&nbsp; an extension\nservice to help youths who commence farms in their homes. The Deputy Directors\nof Youth Development in charge of Districts took on the mantle of guiding the\nyouths to establish income generation activities and guiding them on a day to\nday basis. In short the Ministry of Youth Development&nbsp; became in facto a Ministry creating\nemployment and providing training for that purpose\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1982 I commenced training\nthe staff in economics and techniques of community development and non formal\neducation where the thrust was to enable youths to make their own\ndecisions&nbsp; and develop their abilities to\nmake them become successful entrepreneurs. I was training 2000 youths and also\ntraining the staff to continue the program when I leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The design of the program and my accomplishment is recorded in the\ncertificates issued by the two Secretaries with whom I worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Ayubur Rahaman, The Secretary to the Ministry wrote on\n5\/10\/1983:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em> His contribution\ntowards successful launching of a number of skills&nbsp; development training programs to promote\nemployment of youths deserves special appreciation. His role as formulator of\nthe self employment project has been particularly commendable. Dr\nKarunaratne&nbsp; applied his initiative,\nskills, expertise and energy on training of youth officers, preparation of\nbusiness profiles for encouraging self employment and guding youths to\nformulate small projects. It was mainly through his dedication and hard\nwork&nbsp; that the pilot program&nbsp; for self employment&nbsp; has now been formally accepted as one of the\nmost important development projects to be implemented&nbsp; by the Youth Development Department.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Md. Asafuddowlah, Joint Secretary on 28\/8\/1983:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr Karunaratne\u2019s significant\ncontribution has been in the field of self employment to the drop out youths.\nThis Programme was not only designed by him but also guided by him. This\nactivity which was initially launched&nbsp; as\na pilot experimental project has been a great success and has now been&nbsp; adopted as a full fledged programme of the\nYouth Development Department. This is a non subsidy programme&nbsp; in which the youths are subjected to non\nformal education inputs while they are engaged in viable bur small scale\ncommercial ventures. The Government&nbsp; has\nbeen successful in providing&nbsp; meaningful\nemployment&nbsp; to a large number of youths\non this programme<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Md Asafuddowlah,&nbsp;\nSecretary to the Ministry, on 20\/2005, eihht years later, wrote to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em> You will be happy to learn that the Self Employment Program of\nthe Youth Development Department&nbsp; has\nexpanded across the country and attained great success. I have not forgotten\nyour valuable contribution to the success of this programme<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1993, the Government of Bangladesh through the Commonwealth\nFund requested my service as an Advisor but I had to decline as I was in a\npermanent post as an Assistant Professor at Westminister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Programme has been\nexpanded apace. On 19\/2\/2011, the Government of Bangladesh,&nbsp; in its Report to the 34 th Session of the\nIFAD(FAO) stated that two million youths have found self employment on this\nProgramme. By now (2020) this Programme has guided over three million youths to\nbecome self employed and derive incomes equal to the earnings of a clerical\nofficer in the Public Service. This target has never been reached in any other\nprogramme anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today this is the largest\nemployment creation program the world has known. The Programme currently\nguides&nbsp; 160,000 youths to become self\nemployed and the Youth Ministry has taken over the task of national planning to\ncreate employment. Today,&nbsp; Ninety five\npercent of the work of the Youth Development Ministry is to create employment\nfor the youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am proud that I was able to\nestablish the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh on my own and to\nhave trained Bangladeshi administrators to&nbsp;\ncontinue it after my assignment was over. The only Programme that can\nstand comparison is the Comilla Rural Development Programme of Bangladesh,\nimplemented in 1958- 1969 which doubled the yield of paddy and achieved full\nemployment in the Kotwali Thana- a Division in Bangladesh. This was established\nby Dr Akhter Hammed Khan with the help of a number of professors from Michigan\nState University who were in residence in Comilla.through a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Youth Self Employment\nProgramme of Bangladesh stands out as a success that can be repeated in many a\nThird World country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Garvin Karunaratne At the auspicious moment this morning on the ninth of August 2020, when our Prime Minister is being inaugurated it is my humble request that he considers the full development of the Hambantota District and a Youth Development Programme for special implementation. The Hambantota District has been a&nbsp; district where I did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}