Development not confined to one sector - Minister Basil Rajapaksa

Commenting on the significant economic growth of the Sri Lankan economy in the third quarter of this financial year Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa said that for the first time in the recent past, Sri Lanka is able to focus on an uninterrupted economic growth under the Mahinda Chinthana development plan."The steady economic growth is an evident that development is not confined to one sector," Minister Basil Rajapaksa said.

According to the recently released statistics by the Census and Statistics Department the economy has achieved 8% growth in the third quarter. This is the second highest economic growth rate Sri Lanka has achieved in the post independent era."During the past few years our economic growth rate was confined to 3.5%. But with the solid leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa we were able to reach a 7.6% growth rate in the first quarter of the present financial year and in the second it reached 8.5%," said the Minister."This is beyond what we predicted at the beginning of this year. Considering the progress it was predicted at the beginning of this year that Sri Lanka will be able to achieve 6.5% growth yet it went above the predictions," he said.

Accordingly the agriculture sector showed a growth of 6.2%, the industrial sector 8.8% and services sector 8%.

"Many of the mega development projects launched by the government are nearing completion. We will be able to activate many such projects next year such as the harbour, airport constructions and several other irrigation schemes which will be a solid foundation for economic development of the country," Minister Rajapaksa said. - DY