Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe launching ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ and ‘Gamperaliya’ (Village Transformation) programmes yesterday, said the next 18 months would see accelerated development of the economy. “When we took over in 2015, the Government could not afford to pay its own loans but after three years of proper fiscal management, we are in a position to provide loans to our people,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said at the launch held at the BMICH.
He stressed that the Government which had steered through choppy waters to bring economic stability was now looking to expand economic opportunities. “Now we need investment, increase exports and more importantly improve spending power- people need money in their hands”.
“The Enterprise Sri Lanka scheme which encompasses 15 loan schemes for various sectors including agriculture, women and small industry, will be an impetus to improve the capacity and skills of entrepreneurs,” the Prime Minister said.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the economy but rising interest rates discourage many from taking loans to expand. Hence, these Government loans where the Government will take on the burden of paying the majority of the interest, is expected to encourage entrepreneurs to take the risks,” he added. The Prime Minister also explained that the Government will monthly monitor whether the loans have reached the right people and whether they are using them effectively.
Speaking at another function held in Boralesgamuwa earlier, the Premier said an export oriented economy will strengthen Sri Lanka’s working and middle classes. An export economy will attract investment, generate income and people will have more money in their hands, he said.
He said that in order to strengthen the working and middle classes, rapid urbanization is a must. The government shall not allow such projects to drag on. “When the Government increased certain taxes, everybody blamed us. Even now the same accusations are hurled at us. We have given directions to the Finance Minister to check whether any injustice is being done to any quarter owing to taxation. However much some people level baseless allegations against us, the Government must find money to pay the debts. We have come a long way surpassing all these difficulties,” he pointed out
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He also pointed out that, until the end of war, loans taken by the Government were in Sri Lankan rupees. “But after the war ended, Sri Lanka started to take loans in dollars. When the value of the US Dollar rises, our debts also change accordingly. This is the biggest issue we have right now. The amount of debt that we had in 2009 has increased three-fold because of this fluctuation. If we cannot understand this plight, we cannot go further. The export sector of our country had become very weak. So the government had to focus on this issue for two years. We had many environmental disasters to deal with in the following year,” he said.
He said the present Government took upon the responsibility of the country because the previous regime was unable to rule anymore. “If they were able to manage these issues, they would never have given up power. We won the crucial election and came to power. We do have shortcomings in our management, but we are going forward stronger. Th years 2017, 2018, 2019 have large debt installments which need to be paid. The largest debt amount we need to meet falls in 2018. It has become possible for us to manage this issue and go forward with large development projects.”
The Prime Minister explained that said that developing various areas in Colombo does not mean development per se. If Colombo is to be developed, the condition of Colombo North and Colombo Central must be improved. Our aim is to develop all parts of Colombo with special attention to low income communities, he said. “When we took over the Urban Development Authority it had only debts. It took us two years to repay the debt. Even the UDA’s building was created with a loan. They couldn’t even pay their own debt. So while we were paying foreign debts, we had to meet these domestic debt requirements as well. After solving all these issues, we have now started the actual process of developing Sri Lanka,” he explained.
