Minister Ranatunga confident of revival of exports, investments and tourism

Tuesday, 26 November 2019 00:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Charumini de Silva

New Industrial Export, Investment Promotion and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday expressed confidence of a proper revival of sectors under his purview especially post-Easter Sunday setback.

Newly-appointed Industrial Export and Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga assumed duty at the Ministry yesterday – Pix by Indraratne Balasuriya

He made these remarks, while formally assuming duties yesterday at the Industrial Export and Investment Promotion Ministry at WTC in Colombo.“It is definitely a challenging task ahead of us. The tourism industry had the biggest drawback post-Easter Sunday terror attack and we haven’t still been able to recover properly. The foreign investors also lost confidence in the economy and our FDIs hit a major tumbling block. However, soon after the 30-year-old civil war, we turned around the tourism and investment sector and we are confident of reviving it once again,” Ranatunga said.

The Minister also said that within the next three months he will give leadership to establish a strong foundation to all the institutions under his portfolio to be able to continue the projects after they dissolve the Government in February 2020 and setup a strong Government for the next five years.

“President and the Prime Minister are forging ahead with a long-term vision to ensure a secured and a prosperous nation for all Sri Lankans. We will appoint professionals to give leadership to these institutions,” he added.

As the first task of assuming duties, the Minister appointed S.T. Kodikara as Industrial Export and Investment Promotion Ministry Secretary and Sunil Hettiarachchi as Tourism and Aviation Services Ministry Secretary.

North-Western Province Governor A.J.M. Muzammil, MPs Nimal Lanza and Lakshman Yapa were also present at the event.