Flood of financial resources after defeat of terrorism

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Sri Lanka's foreign reserves had risen from US $ 1.7 billion on July 24 this year to US $ 3.1 billion now. During the first three days of this week alone nearly US $ 900 million had been invested in treasury bills and bonds, Export Development and Investment Promotion Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said at the weekly Cabinet press briefing held at the parliamentary complex yesterday.

This avalanche of resources that had come to the country after the defeat of terrorism and the arrest of LTTE international operator KP would create stability for economic development and infrastructure development and the Government could provide more social welfare measures to the people by new enterprises and generating employment opportunities with the increased money circulation, he said.

"The IMF loan was useful to us. We are a member of the IMF from August 28, 1950 and the largest amount we received from them was this year. The first installment of US $ 3.7 million we received was in July but the money we received from Monday to Wednesday during the working hours was three times that amount and it shows the confidence generated among the investors," he said.

Hotel rooms are fully booked and the winter tourist season would be successful for Sri Lanka the Minister said. "Terrorism has been relegated to the past in Sri Lanka and other countries and Governments are grappling with the problem doing research and analyzing how we defeated terrorism and brought destruction to the LTTE and their international economic network," he said.