Dr Mahathir outlines vision for Lanka’s development:

Don’t depend on loans

Encourage foreigners to set up collaborations:

Channa Bandara WIJEKOON

Sri Lanka must not depend solely on borrowings to build the country. It must also encourage foreign countries to set up their businesses here in the nature of collaborations, former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

Addressing the media yesterday before leaving Sri Lanka after a three-day visit he said this will provide Lanka the opportunity to benchmark and upgrade and add value to all other support services.

Sri Lanka has emerged victorious from a prolonged war spanning over thirty years and now the nation must unite to have sustainable development. Sri Lanka and Malaysia must now look at the areas where there are synergies and exploit them. Sri Lanka can identify ‘business partners’ from among the members of the Sri Lanka-Malaysia Business Council to have collaborations.

Sri Lanka as a country must remain stable and united for the leaders to implement development models. Sustainable unity and peace is of utmost importance.

Malaysia is always ready to share expertise as a friendly country and Sri Lanka must have a set of different models, which were tried out successfully in other countries to achieve sustainable development, he stressed.

Instead of trying to curb the disparity between the rich and the poor, Malaysia adopted ways and means to upgrade lives of the poor, which resulted in fruition.

The race, caste, and creed differences amplify disparity in wealth. Per Capita Income of a country reflects its richness.

“We in Malaysia corrected imbalance in distribution of wealth between races. Malaysia’s calm social context at the time geared us to focus solely on development,” he said. “In 1975, Malaysia did oil explorations to entice investors. Now we reap benefits from the exercise.”

Another vital factor contributing towards sustainable development is the attitude of the people of a country. “Sri Lankan people are hard working. Their attitudes must be right to have right focus towards development. Enough time has been wasted and Sri Lanka cannot take chances now,” he said. “Sri Lanka now has the correct leadership. We wish all the best to Sri Lanka on its march forward towards sustainable development,” Dr Mohamad said.