Lanka placed in High Human Development category

Chaminda Perera

Sri Lanka has been placed in the High Human Development category of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report which was released in Sri Lanka on Tuesday evening.

Prof G. L. PEIRIS

External Affairs Minister Prof G. L. Peiris was presented with the Human Development Report 2013 of the UNDP titled, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World by UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Subinay Nandy at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies.

The External Affairs Minister delivered the keynote address. According to the report the country's HDR value was 0.715 in 2012 as against 0.556 in the previous year placing the country in 92nd position among 187 countries.

This is an improvement of 28 percent compared to the HDI value in 2011. Sri Lanka ranks above the South Asian average of 0.558 and above Pakistan, India and many other South Asian countries.

Pakistan is ranked 146 while India is 138. The HDR reports on a country's Human Development Index based on three main indicators, ie "a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living". Sri Lanka is also ranked in 75th place among 148 countries in the Gender inequality index too.

External Affairs Minister Prof G. L. Peiris said that the GDP growth of a country is accompanied by social equity. Growth should reflect itself as a tangible improvement in the lives of the people of a country, he said.

The minister was of the view that there should be state intervention to ensure that all people including the most disadvantaged section derive benefits from GDP growth.

Development cannot be an abstraction of figures for most of society, he said.

The External Affairs Minister added that there must be an effective welfare net to look after both sections of the community which will not be quick enough to derive the focal movement of the economy.

The minister stressed that everyone in society should feel the benefits and participants in the process of development.

In order to make this a reality, certain conceptual mechanisms have been evolved in the South, he said. Many countries in the South including Sri Lanka we have evolved a system for university admissions.

We are not guided simply by the raw marks of he competitive examinations, he said. The minister said that Sri Lanka does not have problem with regard to gender quality in most walks of life such as profession, banking though such problem appear in politics The proportion of women participation in the Sri Lanka parliament is not at satisfactory level.

It may be due to the proportional electoral system, he said The Minister added that some countries in the South have evolved a system of quota to address this issue to ensure certain proportion of women represent the legislature. "That is the best possible way of achieving the results in that respect.

May be pragmatic way is to apply such system even temporarily. He was of the view that a quota system, although a temporary fix, was not a permanent solution as it was condescending to female politicians. Prof Peris stressed the importance of ensuring that the people in the rural areas have facilities in their own habitat.

He said that there was a principle that people in rural areas should come to closer to the cities in order to derive the benefits of development. "They are physically closer to he centres of development and that would accelerate and improve the benefits. Minister Prof Peris noted that some countries including Sri Lanka rejected this premise.

Mass movement of population from rural villages to the cities many cause serious problems such as housing sewerage, addiction to drugs, he said.

The External Affairs Minister said that the MEP Government led by Former Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike enacted the Paddy Lands Act in 1958 to ensure the rights for the tenant farmes.

This Act gave many benefits to the tenant cultivators the tenant cultivators were given certain rights and they were empowered. The minister added that this piece of legislation provided immense opportunities to the people in villages to stay in their villages, he said.

The minister emphasized the importance of achieving social mobility without abandoning their natural habitat . "This helps that the benefits of development to equitably shared with the people around the country, he said.

If you do not do that no matter what your achievement in GDP growth, you are sitting on a volcano. The best example is the youth insurrection in Sri Lanka in 1971, 1987 - 1988, he said.

He was of the view that infrastructure development play a key role in enhancing the connectivity within he country and the regional and global context. " Focus is very much laid on infrastructure development it is absolutely essential to build rail roads, highways to enhance connectivity", he stressed. He said that local farmers can have easy access to the market if infrastructure is developed. He added that infrastructure development in all parts of the country is essential for the investment to thrive. "There will be no investment in rural areas, if infrastructure facilities such as roads, pipe born water, electricity are provided"

he added. He said that investors would make their investment in rural parts even though they are given facilities such as tax holidays, if the access to such areas is difficult and time consuming.

This will help widen the per capita income in the city and the rural villages, he said The minister said that Sri Lankans are exposed with many employment opportunities in wide variety of sectors including the hospitality.

"More than 1000 of young people have already been recruited to the Shangrila hotels which are being constructed in Colombo and Hambantota and the selected youth are receiving overseas training. They are paid a handsome allowance during the period of training too, he said.

The parents of these youths are very happy as their children are on the threshold of career We have created a reservoir of talents that our young people could derive of the benefits, he said.

There should not be mismatch between the eployment opportunities available and the skills available in the country.

The structure of education is being changed to cater to the rapidly changing economic and social environment of the country, he said.

Executive Director of the Centre for Poverty Analysis Priyanthi Fernando and Deputy Secretary to the Treasury Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda and UK High Commissioner in Sri Lanka John Rankin were among the panelists while Former Director, Economic Affairs Commonwealth Secretariat Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy was the moderator.