WP development akin to China

IMF loan only for development :

Uditha KUMARASINGHE and Irangika RANGE

Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama told Parliament yesterday that according to the World Bank report, the rate of development in the Western Province has increased to 14 percent which is equal to the growth rates of China and India.

He said poverty rate in the rural areas has also declined from 29 percent to 15 percent while the poverty rate in urban areas has dropped to six percent from 16 percent.

“This was mainly due to a number of investment promotion programs launched by the Government across the country,” the Minister said.

He said these financial Bills debated in Parliament today are budget proposals included in the budget 2009 and no new tax will be imposed through these acts.

He said though the UNP tries to obtain political advantage on the IMF issue, blaming the government in the state of the economy, “it is completely wrong and baseless”.

“This is not due to the failure of the local financial management,” he said. It is a result of the global economic crisis. Not only Sri Lanka, but also a number of other countries are being battered by the world economic recession.”

He said the IMF has formulated the new relief package on the request of countries battered by the economic crisis. Therefore, Sri Lanka responded to the IMF to obtain this package through the Central Bank Governor. “The IMF has come forward to support us and discussions are being carried out by Sri Lankan officials with the IMF officials at the moment.

“The IMF has not imposed any condition to grant the loan,” he said.

“Our major objective is to develop the country,” he said.

“This loan will not be spent to cover the day-to-day expenses. “We will invest this money to carry out massive development project called ‘Ran Dora’ which is five times larger than the Mahaweli project,” he said.