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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Stock Exchange growth confounds critics Advanced Technology and National Enterprises Development Minister Rohitha Bogollagama makes an incisive analysis of the economic implications of the emerging political situation subsequent to the overwhelming wide support that is being pledged to Presidential Candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. In this interview with Sunday Observer staffer Indeewara Thilakarathne, Minister Bogollagama evaluates the performance of the Government upto now and dispels all unfounded fears raised about the Mahinda-JVP tie up.
Q: After the signing of the MoU with the JVP, what is the investors' attitude towards the Government? A: The best indication is, at the time of this interview today, the Colombo Stock Exchange has registered the highest growth in terms of the share trading for this year. And that itself is an indication that the Prime Minister's statements to the country made since joining with the JVP has been viewed by the country as a whole in its correct perspective and context. The JVP has already been in Government holding Ministries, very responsible ministries like Agriculture, Industries in the rural sector and Fisheries. And they have pursued the same agenda in terms of overall economic development of Sri Lanka, in that they have not reversed the trends that had emerged. They have only strengthened the trends. There is 24 per cent of people of the country dependent on Samurdhi, the dole that is being given. What is important for us to look at is a very strong economic structure in terms of delivering what is needed for economic growth. It is the delivering mechanism that is needed not the idealism or various other fundamental economic theories. We want the delivering channels to open up. We want post-harvesting systems in the hands of the people so that the harvest that you generate out of our agriculture will get into markets. That will have to be handled by the people. People oriented delivery, private sector led growth in this area. We need a food production base for the country that will ultimately qualify for overseas markets, the world market. We need a good education system where the education level will bring about a generation of young people who are competent to undertake tasks to perform better for the economy. Youth participation, youth led growth is associated with the JVP and their contribution that has been there when they were in office has to be recognized by us particularly for enterprise development. Q: What assurance can you give the business community? A: The Prime Minister is already on record that nowhere have we said that we are rejecting the private sector. We have State-Private sector partnerships working strongly. Even now we have got around 200 public enterprises run by the state. Railways run by the State, 60 per cent of the Airline is owned by the State. The Harbour is owned by the State. The Air Port is owned by the State. The Drainage and Water Supply Board is in the hands of the State. The prime banks are in the hands of the State. The Bank of Ceylon, The People's Bank, the State Mortgage Bank, the National Savings Bank and the SME Bank. In the private sector banks, the Government has made a substantial investment. The State apparatus is working strongly in all areas of public needs. So this is a country where State enterprise are contributing to all amenities and services of the people and the CTB is to be revived because after 6'o clock in the night there are no private buses in some of the rural areas in this country. Having represented and having been the Chairman of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka and having been associated with the private sector growth in this country, I am very confident that only Government could address private sector needs, that is a government that has the popular support in the country like that of a Government led by Chandrika Kumaratunga now and by Mahinda Rajapakse in the future. Today there are 20-23 Commercial Banks. At one time people thought the PA Government was not a private sector oriented Government. But see the urban development that has taken place, the number of towers that have come up in skylines in Colombo in the last ten years under the PA and the JVP led Government. The amount of expansion of urban development from Colombo to Nittambuwa from Colombo to Kalutara, from Colombo to Negombo. This is the Government that has expanded urban development. The new quality of homes that are coming up, is all significant development. Salaries have been increased today, there is more money in the hands of the people, all due to this Government's economic policies. So the future Governments of Mahinda Rajapakse will be further expanding on these areas, I as a Minister and having been in the UNP, am very confident when I look at how well the PA-JVP alliance has contributed to the national economic growth. This is an immense growth and I think we have to encourage future public-private partnership in a lot of areas and also private sector led development like the tourist zone. Especially, economic zones that we will be announcing shortly. For every district we will be having a special economic zone. And we have already created the framework; the SME Authority that has now been created. SMEs are all private sector. They are now contributing, 50 per cent and the tea sector is led by the SMEs. The Industrial Sector is now becoming a vibrant area for the SMEs. We are now supporting SME led growth. The SME Bank has been created with Rs. 5 billion investment by the Government. No other Government has done that. I proposed to convert Four hundred SMEs into corporate structures in this country. We are creating real term, real value, entrepreneurship in this country. And that is what the private sector led growth amounts to. We provide local requirements to the people and thereby create an asset owning society of self-reliance and a society that will have contentment. Foreign investors are being encouraged immensely. We will continue to have tax holidays. These tax holidays have helped the investors to plough their profit back into investment. We are also getting into new trade relationships. Now the Indian FTA has been signed by this Government and see the growth of FTA with India. Earlier we were exporting about 50 million US Dollars stocks to India. Today it is about 400 million US Dollars worth of export to India from Sri Lanka. We are having a ratio of 1:4, the every four items that come, one item goes to India. So we have a growth balance. Encouraging balance of trade is taking place between Sri Lanka and India. How has Damro fared. Damro has 23 locations with its furniture domination in India and is going into three locations in Australia. 'Munchi' and 'Maliban' biscuits are in India. Which Government achieved this? Today there are apparel companies that have registered 500 million US Dollar turnovers. That is a significant turnover this Government has created this and the JVP was a part of that. Q: Has the Prime Minister got the widest support? A: Why not? Any Government must have the widest support. Mahinda Rajapakse has done well in registering the widest support for his candidature. Coming from the SLFP and the PA he has got the JVP involved and even groups like JHU. That is a major development. In addition all the Muslim groups, the minorities in the East and the North are coming in support. The Tamil vote associated with the Indian Tamils is part and parcel of this group. The Tamils will have the comfort of a vibrant representative in the widest representative grouping to be part of Government rule. We have all segments getting incorporated into oneness not being confined to minority arrangements. The mass support led Presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse will ultimately register development and confidence. Q: Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has said that he is going to review the P-TOMS agreement. Any comment: A: Those are matters for the Supreme Court which is already reviewing it. Any leader would totally endorse the effects of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's contribution to bring about lasting peace. Still any leader, subsequently, will have to review certain areas according to circumstances at a given time. Or otherwise we have a fixation. And now the UNP is caught up in a situation where they can't review because they have the same team still there at both ends. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse is a fresher, a new development and he should have the mandate to look at matters in a more open, transparent and progressive manner for the well-being of all Sri Lankans and for the well-being of the Tamil people whose grievances can be addressed under the new leadership. Mahinda Rajapakse's appeal to the entrepreneurs is very significant. We have addressed 4000 entrepreneurs by now in the last two weeks. We have met with all the heads of corporates in this country. Everyone sees the need for a more pragmatic popular leader to emerge towards addressing the economic issues of the country. We need a leader who has a very pragmatic approach towards issues, one who can mingle with, address, and meet the requirements of the business community. Mahinda Rajapakse as Minister of Fisheries, got the fishermen to incorporate into companies and for the first time he registered the highest number of companies in this country. He is a leader who gave leadership to the private sector to come into the fisheries sector even in the coastal fishing area. And the assistance of one million was given as capital to the companies. They were to raise the balance four million to be able to get the boats and the fishing gear. The first fee levying university was created by Mahinda Rajapakse when he
was the Minister of Fisheries; The Fisheries University of Sri Lanka. He
brought about a greater degree of practical oriented solutions. |
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