People-friendly economic plan essential - Minister

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Sri Lanka's economic development plan should be a sustainable and people-friendly one instead of fast growing, which would crash abruptly, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa said.

Addressing the media at the Tourism Ministry auditorium, he said Sri Lanka should follow an indigenous economic policy protecting values and traditions while promoting tourism giving it a special preference.

The Economic Development Ministry's plan is to provide a people-friendly economic policy to benefit the people of the country and not to increase the number of tourist hotel rooms. "Economic policies of other countries will not be suitable for us though some try to compare our tourism industry with others", the minister said.

"If tourism fails what we should do in the future should also engage our attention. The eruption of the volcano in Iceland which led to the cancellation of all the airlines travelling above Europe some months ago was a good example," he explained.

"Therefore we should build boutique hotels so that we could use them for our own use if tourism fails. With foreign direct investments we should think of a sustainable development strategy that would suit our indigenous economy that is unique to us," the Minister said. He said the media has a vital role to play and should not only criticize but also expose shortcomings of the people.