Sri Lanka's current economic growth rate of around 8.3 % would rank the country among the top four performing economies in the world. Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa said that an IMF study had predicted that Sri Lanka would remain as the second best performing economy in the world next year, after China.
He told reporters this week that war-torn countries such as Vietnam, Germany, Japan and Korea had taken many years to return to normalcy while in just two years after the war Sri Lanka could be among the top four economies in the world. He said that Sri Lanka still has to narrow the export and import gap.
The main reason for such a gap to exist is the dependency on essential items that could be produced in Sri Lanka. "This is the reason the last budget provided so many incentives for investors to start businesses in cement, steel, iron, manufacture of drugs and other similar ventures." The minister said that the annual milk import bill of the country was around US$330 million, sugar $450 million, chillies $50 million and fish $120 million.
This was a sad situation as they could be produced in Sri Lanka. He said that a few years ago over 90 % of ingredients to make Thosai and Indian foods were imported and today Sri Lanka is almost self-sufficient in this sector mainly with supplies from Vavuniya. Due to the global recession investors were prompted to save money last year and this year they are likely to invest and this would open opportunities to Sri Lanka.
He also disclosed that the country is very serious in perusing Nano technology and scientists at the Biyagama zone have invented a fertilizer that could bring far reaching results. "We are currently in the process of obtaining a global patent for this product and several other similar global patents are on the way," he said. "The people in the North and East do not need police or land powers but land to cultivate their crops and protection from terrorism, abductions and the demand for ransom. The government will not hesitate to protect the people in the two provinces and provide them with land for cultivation," he said and added that the peace dividend is mainly enjoyed by people in the North and East with the Vanni becoming the highest developed district with the fastest poverty reduction rate after Colombo and Gampaha.
The minister said with the tremendous development achieved in the agriculture sector in the North and East there had been a huge cash flow to the two provinces which had seen an extraordinary transformation in the day-to-day activities.
Secretary to the Treasury Dr P B Jayasundera said that the country is on the right economic path and this was the reason for global giants like Holcim, Nestle, Shangri-La and Dialog Axiata to invest and reinvest in Sri Lanka.
He said that the government had decided to increase the number of home economic units for each Grama Niladhari division from 15 to 25 in 2012. |
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