Plans to tap high yielding natural resources - Amunugama

by Shirajiv Sirimane

The potential in the Sri Lankan natural resources sector have been under utilised and action should be taken to get the maximum benefit from them Minister of Finance planning, Investment Promotions and Industry Dr. Sarath Amunugama said.

Speaking at the launch of the Dahas Diriya programme at the Galle Face Hotel on Monday he said that up to date successive governments have done virtually nothing to develop and utilise this sector.

Most of the resources on the ground are being utilised and one such sector, which is yielding high returns, is agriculture. However resources in the deep sea and underground are yet to be tapped and used to its maximum potential.

When Mao Tse tung took over China decades ago he conducted a gemological survey to find out which resource have not been used and introduced methods to get maximum benefit from them.

Minister said that the government is now in the process of exploring ways to yield more benefits from the Phosphate, Ilmenite, Gems and Phelspar. "Human resource sector, which has tremendous potential, too is underutilised," he said.

The Sri Lankan economy's forward thrust is by the exporters and this was the reason the government decided to encourage this sector by providing one billion to launch the Dahas Diriya programme.

"As a major plank of our export development policy, we made a commitment to provide incentives to non traditional exports possessing a high potential to be competitively present in the international market," he said.

Minister of Enterprise Development and Advanced Technology, Rohitha Bogollagama said that they would distribute Rs. 765 million under the Dahas Diriya programme within the next three months. The first 100 recipients received their certificates on Monday.

The main purpose of the Dahas Diriya project implemented by the Export Development Board (SLEDB) is to assist the exporters of non-traditional products in Sri Lanka to reach ad position of excellance, increasing their competitiveness in global markets.