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PM outlines bounce-back plan to revive virus-hit economy
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The Prime Minister addressing the 33rd annual sessions of the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) via a video link
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa declared yesterday it was vital to prevent the economy from weakening, maintain stability and ensure the country returns to normal.
He was addressing the 33rd annual sessions of the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) via a video link.
Noting that sectors such as tourism, apparel, manufacturing, remittances and several industrial and services have seen significant vulnerabilities and setbacks, he said, it has had a harmful effect on the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
“In this background, for an economic revival and turnaround to take place after COVID-19, we must ensure that these affected segments of the economy are supported in a revival plan to ensure accelerated growth. Hence, immediately after this crisis, the country must be prepared to get to work to receive local and foreign investments in sectors such as infrastructure, information technology and transportation,” the Premier stressed, speaking on the theme “Bounce Back: Disasters are Opportunities.”
Mr Rajapaksa said the country must also be ready to pursue opportunities to provide outsourced and online services to more advanced nations and to establish new ventures that use Sri Lanka’s mineral resources effectively. Focusing on the education and health sectors will also yield favourable results, he pointed out. “In particular, we must concentrate on supporting our Small and Medium Enterprises as they are at the very core of our economy and livelihood of our people.”
The Government, too, is today grappling with many issues, he pointed out. These issues include the need to increase revenues, enhance growth activities, reduce imports, increase exports, stabilise debt burdens, address increasing unemployment, and revive businesses. In addition, he noted the need to support the increased needs of vulnerable people, particularly, the children.
“Even in the midst of all this turmoil, we must, as a global community, ensure that children across the world continue to enjoy universal child benefits without interruption. That would indeed be the challenge all developing nations will encounter in the face of the serious economic pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic fallout,” he emphasised.
To allocate the necessary funds for this vital need, the global community will need to come forward to assist developing nations. One important intervention through which this could be done will be for the IMF and the World Bank to provide a “debt standstill” to developing nations for a period of around two years, the PM opined.
If that is done, those developing nations could allocate the resulting savings of the cash flows towards providing relief and much needed benefits to their children and other vulnerable sections of the population, he elaborated.
“The provision of such relief will lead to the stimulation of the respective economies and a faster recovery as well, and we believe the global community should seriously consider such a move at this point in time.”
COVID-19’s impact across the world has been deadly, with millions of people being affected and hundreds of thousands dying. The IMF and the World Bank have predicted a contraction of the global economy by around 3% in 2020, which is a huge setback to the entire world community, Mr Rajapaksa remarked. “Sadly, the virus and its aftermath have seriously damaged the economies of almost all countries, advanced and developing, and left a devastating trail of bankruptcies, livelihood losses, evaporation of savings, debt defaults, economic and corporate collapses and hopelessness,” he pointed out.
The PM, however, noted that the Sri Lankan health professionals and the government administration have responded admirably to defeat the virus and its highly contagious spread. “We must be grateful to all those men and women who battled the virus so bravely and effectively in our country. They have given us the confidence to restart our normal work and engage in our normal activities. Their contributions have also led to Sri Lanka being recognised globally as having fared very well in responding to the virus outbreak from a health perspective,” he noted.
The Premier said figures for COVID-19 victims in Sri Lanka were remarkably lower than in New Zealand. He noted that “current data shows Sri Lanka has been able to contain the pandemic to just around 2000 cases in a population of 22 million people with only 11 deaths.”
He said: “In contrast, New Zealand, the country which the international media regularly recognises as being the nation that has most effectively managed the pandemic has so far recorded around 1500 COVID-19 patients in a population of just about 5 million people with 22 deaths. That is double the number of deaths in a country which has less than one-fourth of the population of Sri Lanka.”
“That comparison clearly indicates that Sri Lanka has done extremely well in containing the pandemic even though what we have today is an interim government, until the new Parliament is elected. In fact, it may be said that what is most vital now is to prevent the economy from weakening, maintain stability and ensure that the country returns to normal as fast as possible.”
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already asked all authorities to think “out-of-the-box” and implement strategies that would have a favourable impact on our country and economy, the Premier pointed out. “This is now the major challenge that is before the professionals of our country,” he said, inviting professionals to come forward at this moment to contribute their ideas and efforts to conquer the challenges faced by the country.
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| Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan who was to be the guest of honour at the 33rd Annual Conference of the OPA (Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka) yesterday morning, excused himself from attending the confab by webinar because he was occupied with budget related activities.
The keynote speaker was celebrated Pakistani scientist Atta-ur-Rahman, who briefly explained Imran Khan’s inability to participate in the event. “Imran called me last night and said he was excitedly looking forward to participate in this conference especially since Sri Lanka and Pakistan had cordial relations. But he wished to excuse himself because he was in the middle of a budget session. He urged that Sri Lanka focus on developing education, science, technology and innovation,” said Prof. Atta-Ur-Rahman, the UNESCO Science Laureate, current Co-Chair of the UN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation for UNESCAP and former Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan.
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Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha was the chief guest at the conference titled ‘Bounce Back’ conducted via digital technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic.