Export-oriented rural industries should be uplifted - Prof. Peiris

“There are exciting opportunities now in Sri Lanka, that never existed during the past two decades. During the time we gained independence, Sri Lanka was economically stable and well ahead of Korea and India. We fell back as a result of exploitation and misuse of resources,” said, Prof G. L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development and International Trade addressing National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) at its 51st Annual General Meeting (AGM), last week.
“It is no longer a struggle, and nations like the Russian Federation have very positively come forward to accelerate economic development and addressed some of our priorities in the areas of oil exploration, tourism, promotion of mass communications, augmenting people-to-people contact and cultural relations between the two countries.
They also supported us with a loan of US$ 300 million, which will be used for the purchase of multi-purpose equipment including defence equipment.”
“It took 61 years to evaluate and build priorities and now we are doing it,” he pointed out.
Cooperation in the field of energy including petroleum exploration and petroleum resources development, technology transfer in the area of renewable energy, and aviation and tourism were areas discussed by the two leaders in Russia.
Minister GL Peiris strongly focused on the importance of developing the rural export economy and urged businesses to work together with the government to address the daunting challenges of economic development.
“There is a large area of land in the East for cultivation and it’s a prudent decision by the NCCSL to render its services to rural areas,” he asserted.
“There are other areas like green tea manufacturing and advance technology in printing that can be boosted”, he added.
The foreign ministry of Russia is ready to extend fullest support in the tourism sector and looks forward to promote investment. (SRM)