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Sunday, 24 January 2010

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Zenith of development in 2010

An unprecedented number of mega development projects are taking place with five harbours which include two international harbours in Hambantota and Oluvil along with an international airport in Mattala and four power generation projects.

One of the biggest development projects in Sri Lanka was the accelerated Mahaweli Development project which spanned over seven years. However, the development that is taking place today has surpassed the Mahaweli project by leaps and bounds.

One of the biggest hurdles to launch mega development projects was the lack of capital and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ironed it out in a professional manner.

“If I don’t have finances to complete these projects I would not start them,” he said last Wednesday in Kandy.

Answering a question posed by the Sunday Observer he said that foreign donor countries have faith in Sri Lanka. “If these countries were not sure that Sri Lanka was in a position to pay back they would not lend money in the first place,” the President said.

He also stressed that Sri Lanka has a very clear record when it comes to repayments.

President said that this was achieved while fighting a war. “I am confident that the donor countries would continue their trust in the future as well,” he said.

The Government has received U.S.$ 1348 million as Loans and Assistance in 2008. In addition to this, Sri Lanka has also received U.S.$ 509 mln as Treasury Bills and foreign investment bonds.

With the end of the war, Treasury Bills and Foreign Investment Bonds increased up to U.S.$ 1646 mn. With this development the balance of payment deficit showed a surplus of U.S.$ 2.2 billion by September 2009 and official foreign exchange reserves exceeded U.S.$ 4.2 billion.

“The country has never defaulted payment. Sri Lanka has paid back our dues at the right date and hour,” he said.

Some of the new projects such as the Hambantota and Oluvil Harbours, Colombo South Harbour expansion, Kotmale Hydro power project, Sampur, Norochcholai power projects were only confined to plans and talk for several years mainly due to lack of leadership initiatives. He said that he speaks only of things that can be done and when he makes a pledge he makes sure to implement it.

Commenting on the GSP Plus he said that this issue would be ironed out soon in favour of Sri Lanka. “This is an issue created by the Opposition and a handful of diplomats “ he said.

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