Peace is key to economic boom

Address by Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe at the Leopard Capital Investor Forum in Colombo on November 20

Minister Samarasinghe

From the perspective of a Minister charged with the subjects of Disaster Management and Human Rights, I have viewed the damage and destruction of both human and physical resources of the country in the last phase of the war as posing a challenge that confronts us in the post-conflict phase.

We must, as a people, seize many opportunities that will come our way and not to make the same mistakes as in the past when we failed to exploit opportunities for the betterment of the people.

Visiting the conflict affected regions, in particular, which are undergoing a transformation due to the present reconstruction programs; I believe the time has dawned to reap the benefits of peace that the military victories have brought about. Given lasting peace and stability, this country has the potential to progress fast and even catch up with the front-runners in the region.

Victories to peace

Converting the end of armed hostilities achieved through military victories over terrorism into sustainable peace is the principal challenge that we face today, the achievement of which is vital for Sri Lanka’s progress and prosperity.

This would become possible if we as people realize that, in a collective sense, the country has suffered from the conflict and that we must move forward together as one Sri Lankan people with no further polarization based on labelling some as victors or others as vanquished. Imagine for a moment what might have been, had we devoted all that energy and resources that we were compelled to spend on fighting terrorism for development. In terms of living standards, we were at the top of the table in 1948, at the time we gained independence, second only to Japan among Asian countries.

We have fallen behind the front runners and others who were trailing behind us have caught up with us or have overtaken us. However, despite the conflict, we have made some progress in the past few decades and reached the status of a middle-income country, showing the resilience and indomitable spirit of the Sri Lankan people.

Peace, stability, law and order are pre-requisites for economic advancement in any age or country. Economic advancement, in the sense of higher income and improving standards of living, would make the military victories over terrorism and the reestablishment of peace after a protracted conflict, more meaningful to the civilian populations in all parts of the country, be it North or South, East or West.

There is no gainsaying that throughout the history of humankind, peace has always held the key to prosperity in any country. Economic advancement and prosperity will tend to reinforce the peace achieved through military operations after much sacrifice in terms of human and physical resources.

The global experience and the 2,500 - year history of Sri Lanka provides numerous examples to support this assertion. At this critical moment in the country’s history we can and will rise to the occasion. In doing so, we must be guided by the pragmatic policies of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government and achieve economic advancement with equity thereby ensuring and sustaining peace.

In this task of building sustainable peace in Sri Lanka, we would like to engage the resources, know-how and technology of the investment community to support and strengthen our efforts. We are confident that Sri Lanka can achieve economic advancement much faster and with greater efficiency.

It would also help Sri Lanka to address the issue of the savings / investment gap that has been a feature of our development efforts throughout the conflict period. The challenge facing the Government is to ensure that peace dividend flows to all the regions in the country so that the population will feel a perceptible improvement in their incomes and living standards.

That would help lay to rest the disillusionment and frustrations that drove a section of our population to think in terms of dividing this country by force of arms. I welcome the initiative of Leopard Sri Lanka for its timely intervention aimed at generating the necessary investment resources to help finance post - conflict economic development.

Infrastructure development

Now that the war is over, the focus is on economic development. It is clear that the Government will play a pivotal role in infrastructure development. It is engaged in an ambitious program of road building including motorways, the development of several harbours, chief among which are the Hambantota Port and the Colombo South harbour and several power projects including a coal power plant to address the growing demand for power and energy. Some of these projects are nearing completion. It may be possible to commission the early stages of these projects in the very near future. In this effort of post-conflict economic advancement, the Government believes the private sector has an important role to play and that a significant share of the resources should be drawn from it.

The Government has pursued and will continue to pursue a business-friendly policy framework.

Looking ahead I will try to describe some of the salient activities concerning the efforts the Government has initiated in the post-conflict period to lay the foundations and to prepare the ground for a massive reconstruction effort in the North and East. The efforts at resettlement of civilian population and infrastructure development will serve as an impetus for subsequent public and private initiatives requiring investment to address problems of poverty, low standards of living and the lack of employment.

Oluvil port under construction - a step towards North and East economic resurgence. Picture by Indrajith Perera

The Government was able to liberate the East two years ago. At the conclusion of the hostilities there, we faced similar problems that we now face in the North concerning, de-mining of the areas of return, the opening of roads for vehicular transport and civilian resettlement.

In the East, our work proceeded smoothly winning the approbation of the international community and we were able to complete the work well ahead of schedule.

We have brought to bear on our work in the North the wealth of experience that we gathered in the course of doing the same work in the East. We are confident that we would complete this work in the next six months and return these areas to civilian administration in the same way as we did in the East.

This will pave the way for elected officials to represent the interests of the people of the North effectively. The Government is anxious to achieve this as soon as practically feasible. Contrary to some pessimistic voices, I believe a sound civil administration, sensitive to the needs of the population, will contribute immensely to peace building and exert a positive influence on economic advancement in the region.

The Mullaitivu District though affected by the war has managed to restore normality in most areas of civilian life. While we have commenced resettlement in the area, a couple of weeks ago we managed to open two of the main schools in the district. This is a small example of what I mentioned above.

De-mining

I would like to place before you some statistics that would throw light on the scale of the problem. In the East, we had nearly 200,000 IDPs at the conclusion of hostilities awaiting resettlement compared to over 280,000 IDP in the North.

Area needing de-mining was nearly 250 square kilometres in the East. The previous estimates for de-mining in the North which was around 400 square kilometres has been revised to over a thousand square kilometres. Roads needing clearing of obstructions, the construction of bridges and culverts and resurfacing was nearly 200 kilometres in the East. The requirement in the North is estimated at 6,500 kilometres.

To be continued