Big boost to Southern province:

Hambantota Port to usher in a new era

By Shirajiv Sirimane

The construction of the Hambantota Port would bring numerous benefits to the Southern Province and the country as a whole says Director General, of the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce (HDCC), Azmi Thassim.

"Sri Lanka, as a country, has missed out on several development opportunities in the past, and the rural areas had largely been neglected for many decades. This led to the talent from these underdeveloped areas being lost as people migrated to the Western Province, looking for better opportunities, and some even left the country.

Resources in the district had long been under-utilised, and the bottom line was that poor people who could not go out to find better opportunities had to keep suffering in silence.

The vast resources of the district remained unexploited, largely as a result of the over-concentration of the country's development priorities in the Western Province.

"With a new era dawning on the Southern Province, we have now a lot of hope for the future as regional development has been given priority and infrastructure development has become a reality.

The business community in particular, is very confident about the future, and understand the importance of putting the country first by getting together and putting aside differences at a time like this for the sake of the country.

HDCC believes very strongly that we have to work together as a team and reap maximum benefit of this opportunity for the benefit of our future generations.

"We are keen to work with the Government at all levels in developing initiatives to assess the needs of local businesses and the people and to help them to develop the necessary skills and capacities.

HDCC, as the representative of the business community, would like to offer its fullest support and cooperation in this regard and also more in participating in planning, decision-making, implementation etc.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, The Government of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and all other stakeholders who have contributed immensely to this project to make this project a success.

On a final note, as a business community, we would like to pledge our fullest cooperation and sincerely appeal for more opportunity for the private sector to participate in the development process which we strongly believe will assure the success of the projects and bring more benefit to local people.

"On behalf of the business community of the Hambantota district, the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce(HDCC) offers its best wishes for the very happy day for the country, and in particular for the Southern Province, for the joyous occasion of filling water in to the world's first ever in-land port.

As people of Hambantota, and as citizens of Sri Lanka, we are extremely proud to be a part of this occasion," Azmi concluded.