Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal on Friday said the country spent US$5.5 billion on the war against terrorism from 2006-2009 and allocated a sum of Rs.251 billion for the development of the North and East.
He made these observations while delivering the Special Anniversary Oration on the theme “Promoting Financial Inclusiveness in the North and East – The Experience of the Past Two Years” at the Central Bank in Colombo. While remaining critical of the US, the governor commended India during his speech on the neighbouring state’s assistance to the country.
The country had carried out work on investments worth Rs.116 billion from 2006-2010 with the allocation for the Eastern development at Rs.26, 611 million.
He noted, “we must be cautious and not allow others within and outside our nation to destroy our unity or distract us from our mission.”
Faced with the challenge of fighting terrorism financing and later serious economic interventions of at the time a removal of the GSP plus scheme and deliberately delayed approval of the IMF-SBA in March/April 2009, Mr. Cabraal pointed out here that at the time India backed Sri Lanka in assisting the country in obtaining the required approval. Commenting on the Central Bank bombing in Colombo in 1996, he said since then the world took 2050 days (from 1996) to understand what a suicide attack was when the US was hit on 9/11.
He told the gathering of diplomatic heads of missions and heads of banking and financial institutions “We suffered many many 9/11s.”
The cost of the total defense expenditure amounted to 4% of GDP or US$5.5 billion spent since 2006 until 2009, he said. In this respect, many other countries had spent more or less and comparing it with the US war in Iraq he noted the expenditure was US$910 billion. “War on terror was a vital investment for our country,” he noted adding that normalcy was gained with the country recording an 8% growth.
Hinting at the UN appointed panel report, he noted the words of the person from the ground, namely the UN resident representative Neil Buhne, who commended the government in April 2010. |
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