Investments starting to pay off now - Dr Amunugama
Harshini Perera
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Dr Sarath
Amunugama |
The recent floods has not only brought adverse impacts, but also
advantages, a Senior Minister said. “The dams were full and the saving
to the country on this will be Rs two billion with the increase in hydro
power energy and Sri Lanka can cut down oil imports, International
Monetary Cooperation Senior Minister Dr Sarath Amunugama told a meeting
hosted by the Council for Business with Britain yesterday.
He said there is a 10 percent excess rice production from last year
that is sufficient to fill the 10 percent rice reduction of the harvest
this year due to floods.
“There are three elements Sri Lanka should look into when going for a
double digit growth. The first is the secure region for business which
Sri Lanka has been able to prove as one of the most safe countries in
the region with improved security measures.
Good infrastructure comes next and new harbours, airports and a sound
road network, are in the agenda. “The large investments in the
infrastructure sector has started to pay off. It is now time for the
private sector to take off the improvement in investments. In years to
come we will have all the building blocks in place as far as
infrastructure is concerned,” Dr. Amunugama said.
A World Bank study says that if the Sri Lankan railway system could
connect the hill country with Colombo, it will alone add one percent to
GDP growth. There are so many similar areas in which we can invest in,
he said.
Getting the macro economic situation right is where country should
consider next. A primary objective at macro economic level is to keep
our savings higher than the inflation rate. The inflation rate is five
percent currently which was at twenty five percent two years ago.
“Currently we are getting large amount of foreign exchange as
expatriate earnings on our foreign account. We have consistently reduced
the fiscal deficit and this year we will be confining it to 7.5 percent
and next year we will reduce it to five percent,” he said.
“New developments in service oriented areas such as IT, tourism,
banking and financial sectors for which we are equipped with man power.
Compared to other competing countries, we are ahead of man power. Many
growing markets can get the financial services from countries such as
Sri Lanka,” he said.
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