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| Wednesday, 9 July 2003 |
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Ambalangoda special correspondent On the invitation of Minister of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Vajira Abeywardene, Minister of Works Malaysia, Dato S. Samy Vellu laid the foundation for two Housing Projects for Public Servants at Wakunagoda and Habaraduwa. Under this Pilot Project, 1,500 houses for public sector employees would be constructed by Wincon Development (Ceylon) Pvt. Ltd of Malaysia. Making the keynote address, Minister of Works, Malaysia, Dato S. Samy Vellu said that under the able stewardship of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Sri Lankan Government had shown the farsightedness and demonstrated the seriousness by providing affordable housing for the employees of the public sector. Malaysia he said had encouraged its private sector to venture out and invest overseas. Malaysian private sector had considerable experience and technical know-how in a number of areas, particularly in construction, consultancy and the development infrastructure, he said. He thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for giving the opportunity to the Malaysian private sector for development as well. He said this was the first major Malaysian project ever undertaken by a Malaysian company in Sri Lanka. This would also be an opening for Malaysian investors to invest in development projects in this beautiful country, he said. Rapid development in Malaysia in the last decade had produced many Malaysian construction industry players of international standards. The type of projects successfully completed in Malaysia by these construction firms covered a wide range of scopes including infrastructure, buildings, highways bridges and water supplies, he said. Large number of impressive and large-scale residential schemes in Malaysia were the evidence of the great achievements and success of our country in implementing housing projects, he said. 'I regard this housing project for the public servants of Sri Lanka, very important as it provides the means and platform for the Malaysian construction industry players to share their expertise and experience in the development of housing', he said. This would open the door for a lot more Malaysian involvement in Sri Lanka not only in the scope of housing but also highways as well as other scopes of construction, he further said. This would directly contribute towards further enhancing the good relationship between the two countries, he said. The foundation laying ceremony was the culmination of several months of cordial discussion and negotiation between the two sides involved namely Pembinaan Wincon Sdn Bhd and the Ministry of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Sri Lanka, he said. This symbolized the commencement of the construction of 25,000 units of houses over various locations within Sri Lanka for public sector employees, he said. Minister of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Vajira Abeywardene said that there were nearly 25,000 public sector employees and out of that number about 3,000 to 4,000 were keen on buying houses on terms of easy payments. As a pilot scheme, out of 25,000 houses, only 1,500 houses would be constructed in Galle district, he said. Similarly in all other districts, 'Nila Sevana' housing project would be implemented in order to solve the housing problem of the public servants, he said. Once the project was completed, the private sector employees could purchase the houses for four to ten lakhs of rupees which amount could be paid monthly out of their salary, he said. Minister of Mass Communication, Imithiaz Bakeer Markar said that this novel housing scheme embraced the whole system of public administration. During the previous government there was no congenial atmosphere for the foreign investors in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan nation was bleeding during that dark era, he said. As a direct result of the protracted North-East War, people were living in suspicion and fear. The economy was shattered due to mismanagement of resources, corruption and malpractices were rampant. The unprecedented amount of foreign aid granted by the international community to the Sri Lankan government revealed the trust and confidence they had on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as a statesman genuinely dedicated to bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka, he said. On the same day foundation was laid for the Economic Centre of Galle District at Boossa. |
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