Government to formulate policy to check brain drain

The Government will formulate a national policy and adopt strategies to check brain drain and obtain the services of research workers for economic development, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the fifth symposium on Plantation Crop Research organised by the Sugarcane, Coconut, Rubber and Tea Research Institutes at the BMICH on Friday.

He said that the number of people employed in the plantation sector is dwindling and the country faces a challenge to increase the workforce in the sector from 2.5 million to three million.

The President said that research workers in the coconut, sugarcane, rubber and tea sectors have won international acclaim and their expertise has been sought by foreign countries too.

They can contribute more to boost the economy. President Rajapaksa said that the Government will take steps to promote more research in the plantation crop sector.

He said that this symposium creates a common platform for research workers representing various plantation crop research institutes to share their expertise.

The scientists have set an example to other institutions by discussing research findings at a common forum.

The President also rewarded scientists for their research work. Sri Lanka had a rich technology in the past in almost all sectors including irrigation, agriculture and architecture. He said that Sri Lanka was projected to the world as a nation which lacked morality after the country became a colony of the imperialists.

“The imperialists made us slaves,” he said. The President said that Sri Lanka has been posting an economic growth of nearly 8 percent.

“I read a report which said that Sri Lanka had secured the second place in terms of economic growth rate in the world,” he said. The President said that the plantation sector contributed immensely to economic growth. Sri Lanka has to spend Rs. 60 billion annually for the import of sugar.

This is an unbearable burden for the Government. He said that the Government proposed to bring 130,000 hectares under sugarcane cultivation to promote sugar production.

The President insisted that the Pelwatta and Sevanagala factories were taken over by the government in response to the pleas made by the public. Some elements are trying to propagate an opinion that the factories were brought under Government control to take political revenge.