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Sunday, 24 March 2013

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'Lanka needs positive thinking entrepreneurs'

The amended bill on dual citizenship will soon be implemented introducing a residency scheme for foreign nationals who want to work or start businesses in Sri Lanka, said Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

He was delivering the keynote speech at SLASSCOM CXO Lunch Briefing in Colombo last week. He said that this is similar to the system followed by countries such as USA. He said the new laws to change Sri Lanka's dual citizenship process are with the legal draftsman's office, but applications of those who had applied earlier were being processed.

Speaking on urban infrastructure development in Sri Lanka, he said that Sri Lanka needs positive thinking entrepreneurs to catch up on lost opportunities. Local industries should try to be on par with the fast development in the other sectors.

The tourism industry is booming and several international events such as Commonwealth meetings will be held in Sri Lanka. Reputed global hotel companies are investing in the country on mega projects.

Sri Lanka's IT BPO industry has much potential and already Sri Lankan companies have transformed Sri Lanka into a well-known destination for the IT BPO industry.

“We have to exploit new opportunities for the professionals in IT, accounting, medical and legal fields.

The government has invested heavily on large-scale development projects. As a result cities have improved providing better facilities for people and businesses. This situation will encourage local and foreign investors and even expatriate Sri Lankan professionals to come back.

There are several Colombo city development projects being implemented by the UDA. The World Bank funded greater Colombo city development project has invested in the rehabilitation of the drainage system of the city, flood prevention, Beira lake rehabilitation, development of Beddegana park in Kotte, improve facilities of Municipalities, marsh land protection and development of eco-friendly cities.

A new lake has been created in Kotte by the Land Reclamation and Development Department and work on the Veeressa Ganga project is under way. All these activities will make greater Colombo a pleasant area, he said.

With the completion of these development projects, thousands of people today use the open areas, parks, walking and cycle tracks daily.

While developing Colombo, similar development projects have been implemented in other cities such as Gampaha. The standard of living of the people in these cities is improving gradually.

He said that walls around the buildings with ancient archaeological value and hidden from the public eye, have been demolished and turned into public places.

Buildings with the rich architectural heritage of Sri Lanka, some of them belonging to the colonial era such as the Dutch hospital, Colombo racecourse have been turned into commercial places. The former auditor general's office building is under renovation. Galle and Jaffna forts have been renovated.

Speaking on the removal of unauthorised settlements in Colombo, Rajapaksa said that all those who were removed were living on state owned lands and better quality alternative houses will be provided to them in housing schemes close to their original places of residence. Therefore, they can do their present jobs and their children can attend the same schools.

With the completion of these projects more lands will be available in the Colombo city.

Rajapaksa invited the business community to come up with new business ideas and branch out their business into rural areas.

Entrepreneurs have called for the creation of a common place for knowledge industries such as IT BPO, electronic, apparel design, nano technology Rajapaksa said that innovative ideas of the industry people can be considered and already the UDA had an initiative in Colombo and a knowledge park has been proposed in Hambantota, he said.

- GW

 

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