Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister notes mega development plan to uplift rural areas in the next two years
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has reportedly stated that a mega development plan would be implemented with the objective of uplifting rural areas over the next two years.
Local media reports state that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has made these remarks while participating in the opening ceremony of the newly-built Manmunai Pattu Divisional Secretariat building in Batticaloa.
The Premier has said that necessary steps had been taken to develop the tourism industry in the Eastern Province.
“We have already started an accelerated development program throughout the country. With the present government taking office in 2015, each Grama Niladhari division in the country was given Rs. 1 million for development programs. The Divisional Secretariat is the main hub of development work. In 2015 there were many shortcomings that existed within these Divisional Secretariats and we decided to address them,” he has said.
“By now, steps have been taken to fix the shortcomings in Divisional Secretariats and provide efficient services to the people,” the Prime Minister has been further quoted as saying.
He has noted that the government was planning to continue the implementation of the mega development plan for rural areas in 2019 and 2020.
“The President has initiated the ‘Grama Shakthi’ Rural Development programme according to this plan. We have also started the Gamperaliya programme. In addition, several other development projects have been started focusing on developing the village,” the Prime Minister has said.
“In addition, we have launched other programs to develop the conflict-affected East. One step is to develop the tourism industry in this area but the main issue is the difficulty in transportation. As a solution we are planning to commence aviation services for tourists in the Eastern Province,” he has added.
OSL take:
The statement by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister indicates the opening up of a host of investment opportunities in many parts of the country, with special focus in the Eastern Province. The Sri Lankan government is currently engaged in two rural empowerment programmes that have created many project opportunities around the island. Interested foreign businesses could explore such project opportunities and be part of Sri Lanka’s development programme.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20180731/Z_3 |