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Peace moves saved Rs.5 b, PM tells UNP confab

by Ananda Kannangara

The Government saved a record Rs. 5 billion in defence expenditure last year as a result of the peace initiatives, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday.

"However, we had to face difficulties when the Government's overall expenditure increased from Rs. 380 billion in 2001 to Rs. 410 billion in 2002," Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told the North Central Province UNP convention at the Kekirawa Public playground.

"However the Government's net income is Rs. 260 billion. As this is insufficient to run the country we have to raise another Rs. 125 billion locally on high interest rates."

He said that if the Government did not stop the war, an additional Rs. 5 billion would have been needed for defence. "The international community has focused their attention on Sri Lanka. The Oslo conference gave us funds to re-develop the North-East".

"We will get more funds at the International Donor Conference in Tokyo, Japan in June this year. This conference will be attended by the IMF, the World Bank and the ADB."

The Prime Minister said 2003 has been named as Employment Year. Ministers had been directed to create more jobs for youth during this year and to develop the country. The government intends to create more computer related jobs.

"We must develop our economy to the level of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We must improve the harvest of paddy and tea to get more foreign exchange."

The Premier said the Government was planning to increase tourist arrivals to 2.5 million. "To achieve this target we have to open more tourist-oriented places. We are also developing the Colombo Port and the International Airport."

The premier drew the attention of the party delegates to the situation in the Gulf. "If war comes we have resources for six weeks. But we will have problems if war continues for more than three months. Oil prices will also go up and so will commodities."

He stressed that telling the truth, however bitter it may be, was his policy. He urged all sections of the community to join hands for peace and prosperity.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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