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| Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
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by Ramani Kangaraarachchi and Anjana Samarasinghe The Central Bank of Sri Lanka expressed the hope that the destruction caused by the Tsunami disaster will be manageable with foreign aid and that it would not have a major impact on the country's economy. Although the exact damage has not yet been assessed the picture is not so gloomy, Deputy Governor Central Bank W.A.Wijewardena speaking at the media conference on the release of third quarter GDP estimates 2004 said yesterday. The World Bank has already pledged US $ 250 million to the region, a substantial amount of which would come to Sri Lanka. Other international donor agencies are also surveying the damage in order to give financial assistance for various needs. Director Statistics Central Bank, Anila Dias Bandaranaike said that although the fishing and tourism are the worst affected industries the damage is about one percent from the overall GDP for tourism and two percent for fishing. There are 14,000 hotel rooms in the country and only 4,500It was revealed that 11 hotels have already commenced operations and the rest will be operational within three months. The arrival of tourists has not been affected. With regard to the fishing industry, Deputy Governor Dr Rani Jayamaha said that there is a plan to declare the coastal belt as a development belt and resettle the fisheries community in safer areas. She said that there will be more opportunities to develop and expand under this plan. They have identified the skills and new people will be trained for those areas where necessary. The garments factories in the South also have already commenced operations have been affected. |
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