The Government has laid the foundation for the economy to move forward, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said recently.
The Prime Minister made this comment while attending the ceremony held at Arangala Sanasa Hall on June 30 to distribute egg incubators received by the Prime Minister’s Office from the government of China and coffee machines from the Decentralised Fund to societies in the Kaduwela electorate.
The Prime Minister further said, “All of you have made a great commitment in the crisis that the country has faced. There are still people who remember the Second World War. I have heard about that time. We spent many months living by eating bajiri while the Japanese were dropping bombs. Our schools were moved away from cities. These are true stories. Having come from such a difficult situation, we faced such a situation once again, so last year we had to cut the government expenditure by a large percentage.
“Colombo district is the district that faced the most of the problems. People made such a big sacrifice to achieve some progress with belief. We are moving forward. Retired public servants are here. We did not stop your pension even for one month. Even in the most difficult situations, the Ministry of Public Administration took money from the Treasury and paid the salaries of 1.4 million public servants once a month.
“We faced the process of building the country by facing the problems realistically. We won the trust of foreign countries towards our country again, and brought the country to the position of being able to do international transactions.
“In the crisis that we fell into, there was a situation where an international Letter of Credit could not be opened. Today Sri Lanka has a chance to create a new environment where there is no such situation.
“For some time, due to the financial crisis, Decentralised Funds were not received. In last year’s Budget, decentralised development funds have been allocated to Provincial Council projects. The services that these societies can provide to their members should be expanded.
“In our country, there is now an economic movement where there are less common organizations and we are moving forward with individual organisations. Cooperatives are a security for our country, so the members of the cooperative movement even with great difficulty should protect various organisations like Sanasa.
“The Government has allocated a lot of money for providing relief to people who are living in difficulty in our society. A special programme has been made since last year to increase relief to the elderly, low-income earners and people living in difficult conditions and to provide other facilities that can be provided continuously.
“Rather than the methods tried by other countries that fell into this kind of crisis, we all discussed and had a unique approach to the existing difficulties of the country.
“The elderly population of Sri Lanka will largely increase in the next 20 years. Various services have to be started for the aspirations and wishes of those people.
“Financial allocations should be made to prepare those plans. The EPF is Asia’s largest bank for working people. Now we are discussing how to serve the elderly people not only when they get retired but after that too.
“Egg incubators can be used as a source of income for low-income people and for providing nutritious food, and if managed according to the right method, every household can be covered in a year.
“The Chinese government is fully contributing to the programme of providing these machines throughout Sri Lanka. Yadamini Gunawardena has proposed a lot of programmes with rural public organisations. The members of the societies along with the Member of Parliament, the Divisional Secretary and the public should join hands. Confidence can make a big difference. “China recently signed a relief agreement with Sri Lanka. China pledged the necessary support to the government of Sri Lanka to develop the economy. Japan has agreed to resume all suspended projects.
“Through this, support is generated not only for the government department but also for the private sector, especially the business class, who are trying to rebuild our economy under the new agreements.
“As a government, we have laid a foundation for the economy to move forward.”
Colombo District Coordinating Committee Chairman, Members of Parliament Pradeep Udugoda and Yadamini Gunawardena, Kaduwela Divisional Secretary Sampath Idamgodage, Kaduwela Municipal Secretary, Executive Committee member of the MEP youth organization Chandana Pushpakumara, and representatives of community organizations participated in this event.
