Must treat this as final opportunity for SL to rise - President

President Maithripala Sirisena today said that all parties must treat the present opportunity as the final one for Sri Lanka to rise and urged everyone to work together to make use of it. 

The President made these remarks delivering his Policy Statement at the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament this afternoon. 

Speaking further, President Sirisena said that when he assumed the Presidency in January, 2015, his Government had four main challenges in the country. These were to restore democracy and rule of law, re-establishing trust between different communities, rescuing Sri Lanka from the debt trap it had gotten into and to win back the trust of the international community. "Whatever accusations come our way, it must be acknowledged that within the past three years, much progress was made in these four areas," he insisted. 

Speaking on the reconciliation procress, President Sirisena said, while it hasn't been easy, progress has still been made. He cited the example of privately owned lands that had been occupied by the security forces, noting that 85 per cent of such lands in the North have already been returned to their owners.