Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the 20th Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit yesterday, said that there are 289 large scale projects worth over Rs. 5 Trillion being implemented by Government Ministries and Departments.

“It is also very important that they be completed on time and also in conformity with the budgeted values which have been allocated,” the Prime Minister said.

“There are over 1.8 million employees working in 400 Government departments engaged in economic activities. We will treat it as an absolute priority to get the maximum returns efficiently from both the human and physical resources in a people’s friendly manner,” the Prime Minister said.

“While expressing satisfaction with the progress already made, we must continue to further develop the economy and strengthen the lives of the people,” he said.

We must ensure that we get on to a higher growth trajectory very soon and very fast and the entire country should be transformed into a work place. We see that is also one of the core objectives of your Summit and we also see it as a priority that you should also exchange information with the public sector departments as well in the formulation of these strategies. As a result of these developments, we are happy that the foreign remittances and the export revenues that we are getting now are higher than even prior to the outbreak of the COVID 19. The restrictions on the imports that we have implemented and the external sector has shown a satisfactory position and the trade balance has also shown better results.

However, Foreign Direct Investments which have been received are not yet in a satisfactory position and we wish to remind the private sector also about it. Therefore, it is up to the private sector to increase the FDI’s into this country and we are pleased to remind them about it.

The Prime Minister observed that the Chamber Summit had deliberated on the strategies which were needed to be adopted locally and globally on the first day. You had also deliberated on the role of the private sector in the development process of the country as well.

“You had also discussed the economic development of the country, using the nationally available resources. You have also deliberated on the use of the technology and all this goes to show that you are all keen to ensure accelerated development,” he said.

While appreciating that the state institutions were performing a responsible service, the Prime Minister also said that it was important to make all state institutions people- centric.

He also expressed pleasure that the Chamber Summit was also deliberating on Food Security. While mentioning that it was the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the food security prevailed, it also needed the cooperation of the citizenry,” he said.

He also said that one of the big time lessons that COVID-19 taught us was to be self-sufficient in food, though some people were blissfully conscious of the fact that any kind of food could be imported. Now, we could see the dangers of that theory, if we went along with that belief,” the Prime Minister added.