The government of Japan has pledged to be a reliable partner for the greater economic rehabilitation needs in the North by offering assistance for the removal of land mines, building infrastructure and supporting vocational training in agriculture and fiheries.
Yasushi Akashi |
At the inauguration of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2009 this week organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), Japan’s Special Peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi said Sri Lanka should ‘avoid the extremes of naïve cosmopolitanism and excessive nationalism’ by developing the country as an integrated, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society. Mr. Akashi highlighted the country’s high literacy rate, high medical standards and other positive points while also saying that the rule of law and good governance leaves something to be desired.
Mr. Akashi said he visited the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp at Menik Farm in May soon after the war ended and was impressive by the dedication of workers from the government, civilian and military, who worked hard day and night to deal with the massive flow of IDP’s numbering close to 300,000. He added that he was not aware of any other developing country that had confronted such a challenge.
At the inauguration, CCC Chairman Jayampathi Bandaranayake said the business community was somewhat taken aback by the harsh criticism of the strategies followed by the government of Sri Lanka in combating terrorism, particularly over the last few months. “As a business community who were intimately involved in lending a helping hand to the internally displaced and being able to comment on the actions of the government, we can term the portrayal of the actions and condemnation of the government, particularly in the western media as disproportionate and even unjust and inaccurate,” he said.
Mr. Bandaranayake said the Sri Lankan public is perplexed to understand the subtle differences that makes the actions of Sri Lanka unjust whereas there are examples of some countries having gone beyond their borders forcibly into other sovereign states and caused death of civilians and destruction on an unprecedented scale. “This is a dilemma of standards that Sri Lankans found hard to reconcile and understand.” However, he added that the friction over this short period is seen as an exception to the excellent friendships Sri Lanka has maintained with its traditional friends.
During the time of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in 2003, Mr. Bandaranayake said it was recognized that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the former conflict area needs vast investments which were way beyond the capacity of this country to generate. The CFA co-chairs pledged US$4.5 billion in June 2003 which was held back only due to the refusal on the part of the LTTE to participate. Mr. Bandaranayake said there is now a real opportunity for the world community, given its genuine concerns, to improve the lot of the people displaced and affected in the North and East, by delivering on those pledges.
Chief Guest at the inauguration, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said Sri Lanka’s private sector has continued to perform well, despite the decades long conflict. “Sri Lanka’s 5% economic growth owes much to the private sector resilience and the government appreciates that,” he said. Despite the global economic situation, the end of the conflict will see a revival of economic activities along with the reconstruction and development of liberated areas, higher arrivals of tourists and higher investments, all helping to expand domestic production.
Mr. Wickramanayake said certain developments are already becoming visible. “The stock market has soared, foreign funds have flocked to government securities, the depreciating trend of the exchange rate has changed, depletion of external reserves has ceased, investor sentiment has improved, movements of people have increased, to mention a few,” he said. Mr. Wickramanayake added that the impact of reintegration of the Northern and Eastern provinces, which were not part of the mainstream economy for some time, will provide the opportunity to access enormous amounts of untapped resources.
Panel discussion involving politicians
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