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The Government will launch three major infrastructure projects on the basis of public/private partnerships, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told 115 private sector business leaders at the Ceylon Continental Hotel yesterday.

The three projects are the Bandaranaike International Airport expansion, The Colombo South Harbour Project and the Katunayake Expressway project, which the Prime Minister said, will commence in October.

However, the development projects in the North and the East, the Prime Minister said, will have to wait till the commencement of the peace talks.

The Prime Minister while spelling out that it was the responsibility of the Government to create rapid economic growth, said that the responsibility of employment creation lies in the private sector.

"If we are to overcome the unemployment problem of over 26,000 graduates, we need to have an economic growth between eight to ten percent for a decade or more" the Prime Minister said.

The corporate leaders assured the Prime Minister that they were committed to provide almost 14,000 jobs in the short and medium terms for graduates and non graduates.

The Prime Minister, commenting on his just concluded official visit of Malaysia said that he was impressed in the interest shown by Malaysians to invest in Sri Lanka as they were confident of Sri Lanka's economic future.

"The Malaysians will help to plan the development of Kandy to cater to a population of 600,000 while the Government has an objective of urbanisation of the Western Province within the next 30 years," he said.

The Premier also said that the objective of this Government was to downsize the state sector, enabling the private sector to procure more opportunities.

"The Government will also look at ways of outsourcing possible activities to organisations formed by public servants themselves. The Government hopes to utilise the Youth Corp and technical training programs to train non-graduates, while covering the expenses incurred by the private sector to train graduates for their requirements up to Rs.40,000 under the Sarasavi Saviya program," he said.

He called upon the private sector to pay a monthly stipend of at least Rs.2,000 for a graduate trainee while the Government will pay a monthly stipend of Rs.4,000 which will ensure a minimum of Rs.6,000 per month for a graduate trainee.

He urged the private sector to rise up to the challenge of expanding their businesses and providing employment to graduates making use of the present favourable economic and political environment.

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