Work underway by Govt. to draft 25-year national policy

Efforts are underway to draft a 25-year national policy by the current Government as per the vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The move follows the appointment of the National Council for the planning and monitoring of national policies according to the 21st Amendment of the Constitution and two sub-committees therein.

One committee has been appointed under the leadership of Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa and a group of parliamentarians.

Under that, a National Assembly sub-committee has been appointed to identify the priorities for the formulation of medium and long-term national policies and in its first meeting held at the Parliament on 1 December, the “Committee of Senior Officials for the Establishment of an Independent Institution for the Planning and Monitoring of National Policies” was appointed.

This committee was entrusted with the responsibility of formulating a national policy for the next 25 years from the year 2023, which is the vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Accordingly, the President’s Secretary instructed the committee to send their ideas and suggestions for the formulation of the new national policy to the President’s office before 20 December and explained the importance of taking into account the national policies that have been implemented in the country previously.

The draft of the new national policy will be ready by 27 December and it will be taken up for discussion by the committee members and the final report will be forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department by 15 January 2023 for drafting of laws.

These developments were discussed at the inaugural meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials to establish an independent institution for planning and monitoring national policies at the Presidential Secretariat recently.

It was under the leadership of the Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake and Finance Commission Chairman Sumit Abeysinghe.

Ministry of Public Administration Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health S.J.S. Chandragupta and other committee members joined the discussion.