President urges youth to support economic transformation

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared that the revolutionary change he promised in the ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ policy statement would be achieved and urged youth to bring about far-reaching economic transformation.

“We are making the revolutionary change that the ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ has put forward. I invite the youth of this country to trust this Government and come forward once again. No need to have fear, this is a huge change,” he said at the ceremony to declare open 1,500 completed roads at the Mandaduwa Stadium on Saturday.

“The people demanded a revolutionary change. In achieving this, difficulties and obstacles will have to be faced,” Rajapaksa said, insisting that he would proceed with commitment to overcome those challenges.

He claimed that there were two groups of people criticising his conduct. “One group has no understanding of what happened over the past two years. They assume the past two years went on as previous years. The other group is the one that wanted a revolutionary change from me,” he charged.

Rajapaksa asserted that due to COVID-19, the tourism industry which earned close to $ 5 billion had collapsed, pointing out the adverse economic impact for small economy like Sri Lanka.

The President said that if the Government could make this change, it would pave the way for an entrepreneurial and research-based economy. “Then we can bring in more tourists. We can export our food and earn a better foreign exchange. This is a challenge. I invite all farmers, let’s cultivate. The promise that the revolutionary change demanded will definitely take place.

“Not only the loss of revenue; over three million people are dependent on this sector, from top-notch hotels to persons who sell king coconuts, their income completely collapsed. When we lock down the country, the economy of everyone from entrepreneurs who run a small shop to top businessmen, it had an adverse impact,” he said.

Despite the early loss of export earnings at the beginning of the COVID outbreak in 2020, he said exports had recovered at present. 

“Nearly 200,000 people who worked in the Middle East have lost their jobs because the economies of those countries collapsed. We brought them back to Sri Lanka. We lost the money which came in as foreign remittances,” he added.

Against this backdrop, the Government also had to repay $ 4 billion per year as loan payments taken by previous governments. “We paid off that debt in these two years as well. In addition, we had to pay $ 1.5 billion as sovereign bond interest. The previous Government handed over a very trivial reserve to us,” he charged.

Rajapaksa said people needed to realise the amount of foreign exchange the economy had lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the debts that the country had to service with all income generation sources being blocked. 

“Considering these factors, people should understand how difficult it is for a small economy to move forward. Nevertheless, we kept the public servants at home, granting them leave.  We commenced the process of work from home. We did not deduct their salaries. Everyone’s wages were paid. The teachers were at home for two years. We paid their salaries too. We provided financial assistance to every COVID-affected family. Even in such a difficult situation, we realised that people need to survive,” he pointed out.

The President said that the Government also enabled flexible work for State employees to work from home. “We did not deduct their salaries. Everyone’s wages were paid. The teachers were at home for two years. We paid their salaries too. We provided financial assistance to every COVID-affected family. Even in such a difficult situation, we realised that people need to survive,” he said.

“A year ago, I laid the foundation stone for the National Programme of Developing 100,000 Km of Roads Project. At the end of the year, we completed the construction of 1,500 roads. We fulfilled our duties during this period amidst countless obstacles. On several occasions, the country was completely locked down. We know how difficult it was for the contractors to bring their labourers because of the COVID situation. I thank the Minister for completing the work on 1,500 roads amidst those obstacles,” President Rajapaksa said.

He stressed that the Government worked towards the betterment of Sri Lankan farmers, while charging that the previous regimes failed to do that.

“Experts come in front of cameras and speak of food security. Food security does not mean feeding the people with poison-infused food,” he said, adding that he had no desire to force the farmer community to move towards organic fertiliser, but made the decision as promised to implement what was right for the country at large.

“If I go military style as envisaged by some, I have to use the military to force the farmers to use organic fertiliser. I did not do that, because this is a democracy. I promised to make a change, and I will,” Rajapaksa stressed.  

He also said people like Sajith Premadasa, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Joseph Stalin and Mahinda Jayasinghe went and obtained advice from Ven. Muruththettuwe Anandha Thero and yet they themselves were criticising the very appointment of the Thero from whom they sought advice.

In addition, President Rajapaksa justified the decision to appoint Ven. Gnanasara Thero to the Task Force on ‘One Country One Nation,’ noting that the Thero was the only person who spoke of ‘One Country, One Law’.

“I told the Thero to make it and then I will produce it to the Justice Minister and then to the Parliament,” Rajapaksa said.