Total elimination of terrorists in 2008 - PM

Rohan Mathes

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka asserted that the Nation could anticipate to dedicate and celebrate 2008 as the year in which the terrorists would be comprehensively defeated and totally eliminated.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka made this assertion when he addressed the National New Inventors’ Presidential Awards 2007 ceremony organised by the Sri Lanka New Inventors Commission in collaboration with the Enterprise Development Ministry, at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo yesterday.

The Premier categorically stated that the terrorists who are now confined only to a limited area, are destined to be totally destroyed and wiped out from this land in the coming year, to restore peace and dignity to all communities.

He pointed out that in an era where changes are experienced in almost all spheres, the Government too has shifted its policies from the norm to develop the ‘village’, instead of limiting development solely to the Western Province.

“It is in this context that the indigenous inventor becomes a great and invaluable asset to the country to uplift its economy.

The Cooperative Movement which has been paralysed as a result of the ‘open market’ policies adopted by the Governments after 1977, must be rejuvenated and consolidated. The ‘Cooperative Movement’ should be in the forefront of village re-awakening and development,” he said.

Wickremanayaka noted that through the new budget, the Government had taken measures to strengthen the Cooperative system once again.

He underscored the paramount importance of being self-sufficient in food, especially varieties which could be grown locally.

He also pointed out the importance of automation and mechanisation, in all the spheres of agriculture, including tea-plucking, coconut-plucking and rubber collection, at a time when an acute shortage of manual labour was encountered in Sri Lanka.

“The contribution of our own creative inventor, would be of immense value in confronting this daunting challenge,” he added.

Enterprise Development Minister Mano Wijeratne, Education Minister Susil Premjayanth, Enterprise Development Ministry Secretary Thosapala Hewage also addressed the ceremony.