North and East will be open for business shortly:

Consume local food products and save $ 1,700m annually - Maubima chairman

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Sri Lanka can save US$ 1,700 million in foreign exchange annually if people consume local food products and there would be no need to depend on foreign loans, Chairman Maubima Lanka Foundation Ariyaseela Wickramanayake told Daily News Business. He said that Sri Lanka has lost a large number of job opportunities in the field of agriculture because the country imports what could be produced locally.

On the other hand the country imports what other countries need over the past 30 years.

This pattern should be changed immediately as the North and East will be opened for business shortly, he said.

The country was self-sufficient in tea, rubber and coconut for many years in the past but due to foreign influence they gave up the jobs in the agricultural sector and took to administrative jobs.

But now it is time again to be friendly with the people in the North and East and let them cultivate their lands and the people in the South can purchase their products and co-exist.

Wickramanayake said that there are 80 large companies in the country under the Maubima Lanka Foundation carrying the Surya Sinha logo promoting the consumption of local products and it invited all other local small and medium companies to join hands towards the effort of making the country self-sufficient.

Referring to the brain drain in Sri Lanka, he said that it is sad that of the 125,000 students who qualify to enter the university only 20,000 get that opportunity and hence the brain drain takes place.

There is no other country better than Sri Lanka and it can be stopped by establishing that facility in the country.

Their valuable services could be used in the country, he said.