Sri Lanka, which is enjoying an ecstatic end to violence, has determined to redouble its efforts to secure a better future for people, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr Palitha Kohona said.
He said despite the distractions of conflict, Sri Lanka has achieved or is well on the way to achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed by the United Nations in 2000. Our infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate and the literacy rate are the envy of many other developing countries.
“Happily the threat of terrorism that hung like a dark cloud over the country was resoundingly defeated by a determined nation led by a committed government with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at its helm. For the last eighteen months we have not experienced a single bomb explosion or a single bullet fired in anger”, he said at a ceremony to mark the 63rd Independence held in New York, recently.
Dr. Kohona said the government planed to double the per capita income by 2016 and initiatives were afoot to create a knowledge based economy with computer literacy exceeding 50 percent in the next four years.