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Thursday, 9 February 2012

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PARLIAMENT

Fishermen held hostage by Somali pirates:

Govt trying to secure release through mediation - Fisheries minister

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa presided, when Parliament met at 1 pm yesterday.

After the presentation of papers and oral questions, Parliament was adjourned until 1 pm today.

Later on, the House took up the Adjournment motion moved by UNP Parliamentarian Ajith P Perera.

Ajith P Perera (UNP):-

Sri Lanka’s Economy depended on the European economy at times. But when the European economy faced a crisis, we are unable to depend on them. We have to adopt strategic economic policies. The economy of Sri Lanka could face a crisis due to wrong economic policies.

The disparity in 2011 between Export and Import has been vast. The government was not enthusiastic to find a solutions for it.

Disparity between export and import has been vast

Dr Harsha de Silva (UNP):-

MP Ajith P Perera was speaking of issues created by the Orders under the Import Export Control Act.

We are aware that the government had imported food items worth US$ 2 billion last year. The government had imported machines valued at US$ 1.9 billion. So how could we say that we have imported items needed for development? We have earned US$ 9,581 million through exports last year, while our import expenditure had been US $ 18,417 million.

Deputy Chairman of Committees Murugesu Chandrakumar takes the chair

Health Deputy Minister Lalith Dissanayake

The Opposition is unable to bring an adjournment motion properly. They brought one motion, but speaks on another topic.

The opposition speaks of import, but they do not speak of facts. Our government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has self-sustained the country with rice.

The government has imported mostly flour, milk powder and sugar. The people in the estate sector consume flour. So does the opposition want to starve them and their children?

The opposition criticizes this government on every matter, but the government has reduced the debt burden of the country.

But in the meantime, the government has initiated many development projects. Ports have been constructed, airports are being constructed. Roads are being developed.

Fisheries Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne, told Parliament yesterday, that the government was trying to secure the release of Sri Lankan fishermen held hostage by Somali pirates through mediation via third parties.

Securing the release of six Lankan fishermen under the custody of Somali pirates could never be done through diplomatic channels.

He said that the pirates were not answerable in complying with the diplomatic processes and that they were not a legal entity and therefore the government had to rely on unorthodox options for their release.

Replying to a special statement made by DNA MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the minister said that there had been no details or information of the fishermen abducted by the pirates expect, for what the pirates themselves have provided to the government.

There had been several other abductions and the pirates had later released them without demanding any ransom. In January last year, the Somali pirates had killed two Lankan fishermen while taking another three hostage after their vessel had been lost in the Indian

Ocean. Those fishermen had been rescued through a Somali intermediary and this time too, the same procedure would be followed. Discussions are being conducted through an intermediary for the release of the fishermen and their vessel held captive by the pirates.

Making a special statement, DNA MP Dissanayake demanded to know what action the government could take through diplomatic channels to sort out this problem. The fishermen W. Shantha Sebastian of Katana, S.K.Weerasena Silva of Kalutara South, S. Dinesh Susantha Fernando of Madurankuliya, W. J. Leon Rodrigo of Negombo North, P. Selvarajan of Negombo Pitipana and D. Jude Nihal Fernando of Negombo North, had left the country on September 27, where they had been abducted by the Somali pirates.

There had been reports that the pirates were demanding a ransom which was not possible for their family members to raise, the MP said, calling upon the government to intervene on their behalf and make use of the proper diplomatic channels to secure their release.

Govt has no income generating policy

Sunil Hadunnetti (DNA): The government has no proper economic policy.

That is why the country is day by day heading to a crisis.

All citizens of Sri Lanka have to finally shoulder all these burdens. What has been the measures taken by the government to free the people from all these burdens?

Today, the whole world faces a massive economic crisis. We too would have to face all these crises in the near future.

What is the economic method that the government expects to follow to escape from the world economic crisis?

The government has also no proper policy to increase income generating avenues. But it spends massive sums of money unnecessarily for the benefit of its members.

Mathata Thitha in focus

Akila Viraj Kariyawasam (UNP):

The government has no proper export import policy. Though the government implements such projects as “Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu” with a view to increase local productivity, the country still has to depend on imports.

Instead of increasing local productions, the production of liquor has gone up by 10,000 litres. It shows the failure of the “Mathata Thitha” programme.

There has been no law and order prevailing in this country. A number of cases pertaining to human rights violations, threats to journalists, abductions and killings have increased.

Govt. has maintained proper export import policy

Vasudeva Nanayakkara (UPFA): The government has maintained a proper export and import policy. We have imposed restrictions for preventing the importing of unessential items to the country. The government has observed that several business ventures run by the private sector owned lands had not been managed properly.

That was why the government had decided to acquire them.

We must regulate all these ventures for the betterment of the country. We are of the policy for controlling unessential imports for the betterment of local productivity.

Social Services Minister Felix Perera: The government has imposed taxes on regular basis on imports with the aim of protecting local producers. During the war, the LTTE had imposed various taxes and collected money from innocent people and businessmen in the North and East. These incidents have not been witnessed in the North and East after the defeat of the LTTE. We must explore more possibilities to create more income generating avenues to earn foreign exchange to the country.

Anoma Gamage (UNP): It was wrong for the government to take over the Hingurana Sugar factory, as it had been running successfully. We have always paid reasonable prices to sugarcane farmers, without undue delay. They had been dealing with us happily. This is unjust.

Jayantha Ketagoda (DNA): The government had taken over a number of business ventures run by the private sector by force. I would like to ask the government on what basis these companies have been forcibly taken over.

According to global surveys, our economy had been stable

International Monetary Co-operation Senior Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama: Moving the adjournment motion, said that the Opposition had stated that our economy could face a severe crisis as the economy in Europe was facing a recess.

The Opposition said that the economic recess in Europe would affect our exports, while intern, affects our economy.

But we have to acknowledge that our economic policies have been perfect, while global surveys had said the economy of Sri Lanka was stable.

Gayantha Karunathilake takes the Chair.

The American Banking system had been concerned over not being able to maintain their banks properly in the face of the global economic recess.

Accordingly, the European Banking systems was also threatened.

My idea had been that the Opposition would talk more positively about the economy of America and Europe, as the Opposition held those economies in high esteem. Now it seems that the economies in America and Europe were rejuvenating due to their corrective measures. So I wish to inform MP Ajith Perera, that the Opposition does not need to be afraid of our economy falling.

India has not been able to maintain their garment industry, but we have been able to face those challenges. The Government of Qatar was taking measures to construct 3 hotels in Kalpitiya.

They are to construct a convention centre in Kalpitiya. They have also made attempts to construct an expressway to Kalpitiya. These countries have invested in Sri Lanka, due to their confidence in our economy.

The rating agencies have praised the American and European economies. American President Obama had questioned the rating agencies as to why America had been given low ratings. The European economy has gone down to negative territory in ratings.

But we are in B plus, as it had been a success. The IMF had also appreciated our economy.

Now our country was no more a poor country. Our country is stable. We accept that we have challenges before us. We are looking for solutions to such problems.

One such challenge has been petroleum. Not only Sri Lanka, but the entire world was facing this challenge. But most of other countries were facing another serious problem, apart from the petroleum issue.

That is the food crisis. India and almost all countries in Africa, face this problem. But we were not facing such a problem.

We understand that there had been such a period in Sri Lanka too. There was an era when political parties had given priority to rice in their election manifestos. But that scenario has changed. We are self-sufficient in rice.

We spend heavily on the import of milk powder and sugar.

But those who import milk powder had been close friends of the Opposition.

The Opposition maintains double standards on the import of flour and milk powder. When we attempted to restrict the imports of flour to encourage local production, the Opposition made it a means to get petty political gains. But our government had been only attempting to develop the economy, while listening to the voices of the people and catering to their needs.

We agree that we have to encourage export to develop our economy. We have to open avenues for our industries to reach markets in other countries. We have encouraged such industries. For example ‘Damro’ has opened 64 centres only in India.

Aitken Spence and Hettigoda have also done the same. Our banks have been receiving better ratings when massive banks overseas face many problems.

All these facts show how credible our economy was, though the Opposition does not show any credibility towards them.

I have to clearly state that the Opposition was not credible. On the other hand, this Opposition was not an alternative to this country and it has been proved during all the elections and at many other incidents.

Govt should maintain a proper economic policy

Eran Wickramaratne (UNP): We have selected the leader of the UNP by election. Not only that, we have also selected a deputy leader of the UNP by an election. We agree that there was an economic crisis in Europe, but our concern is that if we could not export our products to those countries, people in our country would be affected. We are not aware of the government making any attempts to solve these problems. This government should have a proper economic policy.

Govt has undertaken a massive development drive

J R P Sooriyapperuma (UPFA): The year 2012, has been a significant year to us. Today we see people protesting against capitalism.

Today Sri Lanka's population was 25 million. Nearly 4.5 million of children out the population are schooling. This has been a very significant achievement as a result of our free education policy.

The government today has undertaken a massive development drive. We intend to build a new Sri Lanka. We have launched a revolution for the 21st century, where we would further carry it out.

J R P Suriyapperuma takes the Chair.

Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Geethanjana Gunawardene: We are debating today the gazette notification issued by the government. Various ideas have been expressed by the members of both sides of the well. Today the people in Oyamadu in Anuradhapura, reap the benefits of the massive development created in the area due to the Deyata Kirula exhibition. Through this development, a network of roads, facilities for hospitals and schools have improved. Our aim has been to divide the benefits of economic growth among the all citizens of Sri Lanka. We have already registered an 8 percent economic growth, which was evidence for what we had done in the past.

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