Textile industry linked with Lankan civilization - Senior
Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, MP
The textile industry’s history is inextricably interwoven with the
Sri Lankan civilisation and culture and to have done away with our
textile industry was to have forgotten what we are. As mentioned in our
history when Prince Vijaya set foot on our shores the first sight he
beheld was princess Kuveni seated knitting thread.
However, past rulers had discarded those traditions that our people
had protected for thousands of years, Senior Presidential Advisor and
Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa said after opening the Lak Salu Sala at
Jawatte, Colombo on Sunday. The Mahinda Chintana policy program of
President Mahinda Rajapaksa clearly stated that the national textile
industry would be revived as we come from the region where the bulk of
the country’s cotton was produced.
In 1970 when the then young MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected from the
Beliatte constituency Mirijjawila in the Hambantota produced sufficient
cotton for the local handloom and powerloom industries. But when the
next government came to power a policy of importing cotton was
introduced and cotton cultivation was stopped, Basil Rajapaksa said.
However, when the Salu Sala and the National Textile Corporation were
established it was with the objective of developing the national textile
industry but later due to neglect of the indigenous industries and with
the policy of importing even things which we could produce, the textile
mills at Veyangoda, Mattegoda and Thulhiriya were closed down and all
handloom and power loom industries also suffered a similar fate, he
said. Now we are opening the Lak Salu Sala and are on the threshold of
starting the national textile industry that was always a part of our
civilisation.
Therefore the Mahinda Chintana policy of developing an indigenous
economy that would develop to full capacity so that we would not have to
go to the World Bank for loans will be implemented with a textile
industry contributing a high percentage to it, he noted.
(WN) |
