The enthusiasm shown by local and foreign investors towards investing in Sri Lanka after the International Investment Summit held via Zoom recently sends a positive message on the potential for investments in Sri Lanka’s future development, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said addressing the Nation on Friday.
“If we can achieve success in terms of foreign investment which would be on par with the other rapidly developing countries in the region, it will be a great help to strengthen our country’s foreign reserves,” he said.
“The people of our country can expect many direct and indirect benefits through the newly added 269 hectares of land to Sri Lanka, the Colombo Port City. After the Port City Economic Commission Act was passed in Parliament, I appointed a Commission consisting of 100% Sri Lankans. The Cabinet and Parliamentary Finance Committee have already approved a $ 400 million commercial building with two towers as the first investment for the financial city we hope to build. We hope to open up these investments to the general public in our country by allowing them to be listed on the Sri Lankan stock market.”
The President said that the Opposition accused them of reducing government revenue due to tax cuts. He said if they did not do that the people would have been under even more pressure in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The previous government had imposed a heavy tax burden on the people. Direct and indirect taxation had doubled from 2015 to 2019. As soon as we came into power the people were released from that pressure.”
He said that the government due to the COVID-19 first, second and third waves did not receive the amount of foreign exchange they had originally planned especially from foreign remittances, apparels, tourism, construction industry and several other factors. He said despite the fact that the country’s foreign exchange reserves declined, the government did not default on loan instalments that should be paid to foreign financial institutions.
“We had to pay a huge loan instalment of about US $ 4 billion a year as a result of loans taken by various governments in the past. The Opposition socialized a view that the government would not be able to repay these loans. But we repaid all the loans on time.”
“Under these circumstances, it is the responsibility of the government to prevent the occurrence of a foreign exchange crisis. Hence we have to manage foreign exchange more carefully and we had to take some harsh decisions. That is why we had to ban some non-essential imports, especially the importation of luxury goods. These are not the restrictions that we expect to maintain forever.”
President Rajapaksa said due to the continuous disruption of business activities, SME companies lost revenue and faced serious problems as they were unable to repay their loans or pay salaries. People had no money to spend. Those who obtained leases for vehicles could not pay the installments. Housing loan borrowers could not settle the loan installments.
“The government took steps to give them extra time to pay off their debts to get them out of this situation. Accordingly, the government allocated over Rs. 400 billion to provide loan deferral facilities to small and medium enterprises,” he said.
“Despite the dire situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the government has never taken actions to reduce the salaries or allowances of more than 1.4 million public servants. While shouldering these responsibilities successfully infrastructure and development projects and fulfilling pledges stated in the National Policy Framework, “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor” are continuing. The use of chemical fertilizers introduced to this country about 45 years ago has become a major social threat to our country and a decision was taken to ban import of chemical fertilizers into the country. Today, there is a great demand around the world for the products produced utilizing organic fertilizers. Local, as well as foreign experts, pointed out to us that we, as a country, can certainly expect long-term benefits from the use of organic fertilizers.”
“Therefore, the intelligent entrepreneurs should be prepared to reap the benefits of a prosperous future, rather than complaining about the current difficulties. With this policy decision, a large number of entrepreneurs and companies have come forward to produce organic fertilizer in the country. Many people who were not interested in the agricultural sector in the past, have now engaged in various agricultural projects, as a result of giving due respect to this sector. Compared to other countries in the world market, our Ceylon tea received the highest value of $ 4.82 per kilo in foreign exchange. A sophisticated programme is in motion to develop technology-based education in the country. Technology parks are being set up in Galle, Kurunegala, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Dambulla to help promote a technology-based society,” the President said. Commenting on the vaccination drive he said they could vaccinate 13 million people (almost everyone over the age of 30) by the end of September this year.
Completion of the expressway system planned during the Mahinda Rajapaksa era is a vital investment for the future development of our country. Therefore,they have revived this programme which was slow during the previous administration. “One of our foremost promises is that by 2030, 70% of Sri Lanka’s energy needs will be generated from renewable energy sources and the government has taken a number of steps to implement this policy,” he said.
Recalling the past era he said: “When President Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over the country to a new government in 2015, we had a strong economy. The economic growth of 7% was only second to that of China in Asia. Foreign investments were flowing in, the rupee was stabilised, foreign reserves were strengthened, the debt burden was being eased and the whole country became a workplace and rapid development was taking place. During the previous government’s tenure from 2015 to 2019, there were no natural disasters in the country. There was no global crisis like Coronavirus at that time. However, simply because of the failure of the state administration, the economy of our country began to collapse without a just cause. By 2019, the country’s economic growth rate slowed down to 2.1%. The debts of the country had increased to Rs. 13,000 billion from Rs. 7,400 billion. The tax burden on the people had doubled. The rupee destabilized and the prices of commodities skyrocketed. Export earnings had declined and foreign reserves had depleted.”
“We also ensured national security which was in question,” the President said.
0 comments: