|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Public service so vital now
The initial rescuing and relief phase of tsunami disaster is ending. The more time and money consuming phase of the recovery, the reconstruction started last week. To get the financial and , planning aspects of this reconstruction process and the details of the foreign assistance to the government in its recovery process, The Sunday Observer Business met Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama. Following are excerpts from the interview. ***** Now the opposition as well as some of the NGOs are saying that the operation is too centralised because they are disappointed as there is no room for corruption. Although the planning is done centrally it is implemented through the GAs. The public administration of our country faced the situation in an excellent manner. not only in the South but in the North-East too. The opposition criticised my budget proposals saying we are strengthening the government service. But today it has shown the importance of public service from GA to Grama seva Niladaris. In the cleaning and relief operations clergies of all religions did an excellent job. Aid We will not discriminate against the North and East. Everything will be distributed equally the president assured, the Minister said. The government mechanism is functionning well in those parts too. Sinhala people also brought food and other necessary assistance to affected parts of the North and East. All communities are cooperating in relief activities. Our media do not report these positive aspects of the story but are quick to write about the negative incidents. On the financial side, the UN intervened and responded first at the Jakarta summit organised by ASEAN. At that summit every country declared the amount they would donate. At this summit a new concept was presented by Sri lanka to write off the debts of tsunami- affected countries. We requested to write off or freeze debts. We also requested the liberalisation of trade tarrifs to those affected countries. The following week 60 countries gathered in Geneva to discuss issues on aid. Of them 48 countries announced that they would give aid. Now we have to be more careful because in the present world order, pledging of aid is one and materialising them is another. Last year after the earthquake in Iran many countries pledged large amounts of aid. But all of them were not materialised. During the UNP regime, at the Tokyo donor conference billions of dollars were pledged. To mislead people, the pledged amounts were published. There are conditions to materialising those monies as well as there is no guarantee of materialising those monies. Therefore the Finance Ministry has a responsibility of converting these pledges into cash. But here we have positive signs. Recently Japan provided US$ 80 million in cash. The IMF wrote off 116 million worth of debts which we had to pay this year. We expect to inform our debtors to write off outstanding debts. Now there is a tendency of writing-off debts. The Paris Club has come to a decision and some will write-off while others will give a moratorium. Reactions We can classify these post Tsunami reactions into three categories. One is relief. There was a fear of a second tidal wave of flaming, epidemics due to lack of medicine, shelter, food and clothing for internally displaced people. It was estimated many of the affected people would die due to these reasons. But specially in Sri Lanka , the timely and accurate decisions taken by the president and the extensive state administration structure and their skills, that second death wave did not come. This is a great victory. The state sector, private sector and NGOs are engaged in carrying out operations at district level. The Relief phase of the operation is now reaching the end. A looting spree was started in Sri Lanka too, but it was also controlled successfully. Very strong public opinion was created. With the healp of the police and media that trend was controlled within one week. There may be some incidents but police have to take firm action. Because we cant betray our country, all these sorts of incidents are spread around the whole world. It earns discredit to the whole country and therefore they should be given severe punishment. Normal Life Secondly , we should restore the life of the people. The Finance ministry has taken several steps for this. Firstly we have identified that without restoring trade and exchange of money in those areas we cannot restore the life of the people. Therefore we have to give some money to those affected people. We have decided to give Rs.5000 to each family. The people have to go to the nearest branch of the Peoples Bank and give their names. Immediately, savings accounts will be opened and Rs.5000 will be credited. They can withdraw any amount upto 5000 from this account. At the same time to restart the trade in the areas we have decided to give concessional loans without any mortgage upto Rs.5 million to those affected ventures. These loans are provided to restart shops, purchase motor vehicles such as lorries, tractors, fishing boats or any machinery. People can mortgage that investment to get the loan. These loans are provided by both the Peoples Bank and Bank of Ceylon. Government will also provide uniforms and shoes for school children. In addition, a basket of dry rations worth Rs.350 will be provided weekly to each family. The objective is restoring the normal life of society. It is essential that small units of society such as schools and boutiques, should start first before starting other mega parts. Reconstruction The third phase is more time and money consuming as it has to do with re-construction. It needs better plans. We are not going to build what existed but the government plans to build them in a new and modern way and therefore we can say it as the plan of the rebuilding Sri Lanka. There are two sections in this program. One is to rehabilitate damaged buildings and towns. Galle, Matara, Batticaloa and many other places have been completely destroyed. But we are not intending to build them as they were. We may have to bring them inland. It needs more money. Some countries have came forward to rebuild these townships. Switzerland has agreed to build Matara town while Korea has agreed to rebuild Hambantota town. Investment projects At present we are identifying the projects. After identification we will publish them. Some mega projects will have to be carried out by the state, small and medium projects by private sector and NGOs. We have to identify the institutions that can undertake these projects. We are willing to work very closely with those countries that are financing these projects. These are donations and not loans. We cant do this by manual labour. We will use most modern technology in the world. Modern towns will be created. These affected areas are the most poverty striken areas of the country. We pointed out in our budget proposals the wide gaps between rich and poor districts of the country. During the UNP regime this gap widened by the day. There is a very wide economic gap between Colombo and Hambantota districts. It is the reason for youth unrest and many social and political problems such as the upheaval of youth in the South as well as the North. We attempted to address these issues from our last budget proposals. This tragedy gave us an opportunity of achieving our objectives within a short time period. If we tried to achieve all these objectives from our budget allocations it would have taken a long time. We dont have money for such a big investment. Now we have extra budgetary financing for these projects. This tragedy was worsened because of our politicians. There is a regulation banning all construction from 100m range from the coast. But politicians and rich people have violated it by obtaining permits. So people should find out who approved and gave these permits. They are responsible for all the death and destruction. Those who are responsible for these deaths are now distributing food parcels for the remaining people. The Most affected areas are limestone mining areas. Environmentally- damaged areas have been severely damaged by the tidal waves. limestone, sand dunes, mangroves have minimised the damages in some areas. Development There is an argument that we should not spend this money for other projects and they should only be spent for rehabilitation of affected areas. The affected areas alone cannot be developed without overall development. All the forecasting of the UNP in the past did not come true. They said that the economy would collapse and investors would not come to Sri Lanka. foreign countries and donors would not assist Sri lanka. They are afraid because if the economy grew they will never win any election. Now they are trying to get political advantage saying to spend money only for affected areas knowing very well that this is an integrated process. Earlier they spread an opinion through their media saying that all western countries are against the development proposals of the UPFA. But what happened today. All those countries are with us.All of them are happy. Colin Powell and the WB Chairman also appreciated the policies of the government. The second of the IMF told us that they have nothing to say about how we are handling the crisis. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
