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Plantation Minister and Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella
By Charumini de Silva
Plantation Minister and Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella urged the plantation industries not to depend on the Government but to find their own markets, during a recent conference.
“The Government has stopped doing business. It is up to these companies to formulate such projects and find investors. The Government will provide the approvals so that investors will find that their investments will be secure,” he said.
The Government would not intervene into industry matters, but will relax the rules as the “golden shareholder” if the projects are viable, Minister Kiriella said addressing the 96th Annual General Meeting of the Colombo Rubber Traders’ Association on Friday.
The Minister also said that a master plan on the plantation industry has been referred to the Cabinet Subcommittee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The committee will look into the kind of projects the Ministry needs to prioritise and will soon finalise them.
Commenting on investments, the Minister pointed out that although the previous Government eradicated terrorism, no investment had come into Sri Lanka after 2009 because there was no rule of law, democracy or human rights.
“The past Government was able to eradicate terrorism. Thereafter the path of the former Government took us into serious trouble. After the war ended in 2009, people wanted democracy, rule of law and human rights to be established in the country and so did the international community. Unless there’s rule of law, no investment is going to come to Sri Lanka,” he added.
Further clarifying his point, the Minister said that there was a clear difference between loans and investments. During the previous Government the country received loans which have to be settled within a period of time.
“We got loans, which we have to pay back. Many people said airport, highways and the Hambantota Port were developments. These are all loans that we have to pay back. Those are not investments. Investment are when people from other countries come and invest their own money in Sri Lanka.”
Citing an example, he said: “If you take Katunayake Free Trade Zone, those are real investments, where millionaires living in other countries came to Katunayake, leased out the land, built the factories with their own money, created employment and export goods to international markets. That’s not there today, it’s all loans.”
Kiriella said with passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the Government has restored democracy, including independence of the Judiciary.
“A large number of foreign investors have begun making Sri Lanka their investment destination. Thus, I hope you as the private sector will go out and get investors. I invite all of you to join hands with the Government to get genuine investors who will bring their own money to Sri Lanka,” he added.
Revealing the political agenda, the Minister said that the plan was to form a national government to take the country forward for the next five to 10 years, with concrete policies on private investment, rule of law and democracy.
“After the general election, the UNP and the SLFP headed by the President will get together and form a national government to take this country forward. When the international community starts pointing fingers at us, we will have to stand together.”
