JVP leaders interested guests at Gem show

Top leaders of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) were surprised guests at FACETS 2019 – the International Gem and Jewellery Show being held at the BMICH, Colombo on Thursday.

JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and its Propaganda Secretary Wijitha Herath stayed at the venue for nearly three hours and had long discussions with all the stakeholders of the gem industry.

Mr. Herath told the Business Times that if they were to lead the people they would work on a production-based economy and minimize production cost. He said that they have a solidly based policy plan called ‘National Intellectuals’ Organisation (NIO). Through that he said that they have formulated a solid policy – production-based, transparent, pure democratic and solid policy base to serve and make people happy.

He said development is fundamental in a solid economy. He pointed out that today country’s export income is much lower than imports cost which is US$20 billion. Expenditure is double the income. The JVP has plans to change this negative scenario to the other way round to double the export revenue and to reduce the imports to half.

So, he said that their approach would be a completely different one from the existing one carried out by the government. “First there should be proper plan and accordingly aspirations and aims. Secondly they have to find out the machinery to implement those plans. Thirdly he said was most importantly to reduce the cost of production to the minimum and the income so generated is to be distributed equally among all the people,” he added.

Facets 2019 saw the presence of Lewis Allen, the highest Sapphire buyer in the world, who attended the event despite losing wife tragically in the horrible Easter Sunday bomb blasts.

The Gem Show indicated that Sri Lanka is speedily recovering from the April 21 impact as many different foreign nationals mingled with local buyers and sellers to buy and bargain gems at the Facets 2019. The Business Times also spoke to Duke Ting and Ms. Anna Kong from China while meticulously examining some precious stones to purchase them.

Ms. Kong said that learning about the Facets Show in Sri Lanka they arrived here and said they would buy some expensive gem stones. She said they used to attend the gem exhibitions in China where Sri Lanka stones are on show and also they travel to other countries to buy expensive gems. (QP)