The government is planning to roll out a massive investment and development plan in the North and East, a senior government minister said on Tuesday.
“It is not enough to win a military victory. For sustainable peace we have to develop these areas. There are huge natural resources, lands, rivers and oceans that can be used. We need large amounts of money to develop these,” said Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Sarath Amunugama, speaking at the monthly meeting of The Sunday Times Business Club. However, because foreign credit, investment and aid, is in short supply due to the global recession, the government plans to use its latest ‘diaspora’ bonds to kickstart a large scale public investment programme.
“We hope to raise US$ 500 million this year from the Sri Lankan diaspora,” said Dr Amunugama, also Deputy Minister of Finance, speaking on a range of issues relating to the war, prospects of peace and investment. “Sri Lanka is one country where even with the bitterest fighting the Central government has always looked after its people, even in terrorist occupied areas. The Central government provided all the essentials for the Tamil people, even in villages occupied by the LTTE. The government supplied food for the people and even LTTE occupied schools and hospitals were run by the Central government. (Velupillai) Prabhakaran’s children themselves, studied in our government schools until they went out for higher education. So we have never cut off these people and we will not do that now either,” said the Minister.
In the meantime, the government is already offering incentives for the private sector to enter the Eastern province and is also open to public-private partnerships. “It is too early to talk about private investments in the North right now, but there are lots of things happening where the East is concerned. The Board of Investment (BOI) has opened a special investment zone, we are giving many concessions including tax concessions and all projects will be fast tracked. So investors will not have to face delays,” said the Minister.
The government is expecting large production increases in traditional agricultural outputs this year because of the contributions from the Eastern province. The government is also pushing tourism development in the East as a means of generating quick foreign exchange. The Sunday Times Business Club is hosted by the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo and co-sponsored by Hameedia. (DS) |
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