Priority for economic development - Prof. G.L. Peiris

Through environmental protection:

One of the significant achievements of the Government in the formulation and implementation of economic policy is the striking of a perceptive balance between the imperatives of economic development and the required focus on matters relating to the preservation of the environment, Export Development and International Trade Minister and Acting Minister of Posts and Telecommunication Prof. G.L. Peries said.

He was addressing a seminar at the Central Environmental Authority for the major exporters, jointly organised by the Export Development and International Trade Ministry and the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry.

Sri Lanka’s cultural traditions, nurtured over the centuries, recognize the crucial importance of the environment as a factor determining the quality of life and the harmony of social relationships, Minister Peiris said.

He referred to the famous words addressed by Arahat Mahinda to King Devanampiyatissa, stressing the ruler’s duty to protect the environment for the benefit of all living beings and, indeed, for generations yet to be born.

This exemplifies the concept embedded in the Buddhist scriptures that protection of the environment entails a trust, and that the present generation has a sacred obligation to show concern for the environment and to bequeath it to future generations, intact and unimpaired, Prof. Peiris continued.

The Government, he said firmly rejects the notion that there is a conflict between economic development and environmental protection and that priority has to be given to the former.

On the contrary, sustainable economic development is possible only when it is undertaken in full compliance with norms regulating integrity of the environment, he stressed.

Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawake, made a detailed presentation on the energy crisis and its repercussions on Sri Lanka.

He dealt with the resources which are urgently required to find solutions to issues in respect of oil, water and global warming. He explained to the exporters the comprehensive criteria which his Ministry had evolved to assess sustainable human development. An essential component, he pointed out, had to do with environmental factors.

He place emphasis on the disproportionate environmental pollution by developed countries, to the clear detriment of the developing world, and outlined the concept of a carbon debt as a means of redressing the balance.

Minister Ranawake emphasised the need for a co-ordinated approach involving more than 20 Ministries in dealing effectively with challenges in respect of the environment.