Ranil stresses importance of regional cooperation to boost FDIs in P’ment

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday enlightened Parliament on the importance of regional cooperation to boost Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) as a developing country cannot live in isolation or in animosity with neighbours.

According to PM, the Chinese have moved out of conventional thinking and have improved in many fronts. 

“The world has changed. China has joined hands with the IMF. Today, the Chinese renminbi has become the fifth international currency in the world with special drawing rights. Now the world decides the value of the Chinese currency. Many years ago the Chinese invested their money to strengthen the US dollar. Times are different from the days of Benjamin Disraeli and D.S. Senanayake era. India has given 10,000 acres to China in Andra Pradesh. Pakistan and India are working together,” said PM Wickremesinghe who urged the House to join hands in development and to think positively and support building a new nation.

Drawing similarities between the sworn enemies in the region working together to develop each other’s nations, Wickeremasinghe saw similarities between the UNP and the SLFP coming to a common stage last year. “the UNP and the SLFP are working together. But you are holding on to outdated and backward principles. People gave their mandate on 8 January  to form a new front. Based on our progress the world invited Sri Lanka to take part in several important international forums. Gone are the days when Sri Lanka was neglected. We are now being considered as a part of the world. We will not lose our independence and integrity. We never invited international investigations. It was the former President Mahinda Rajapakse who went to international arena in 1990 inviting an investigation on former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Independence of the Judiciary must remain and we will continue to strengthen the legal system,” he added.

Minister of Special Assignments Dr. Sarath Amunugama endorsing the former Government taking the Chinese support at a crucial period and now changing national policy to suite international requirements said: “Our national income is not enough to pay at least the recurrent expenditure. So, we are unable to create employment opportunities or have development programs from these limited monies. The last Government took loans during the war period for development. China lent and we invested in development. Now they have reached maturity and we are unable to go forward with loans. We use a considerable amount of money for our annual debt servicing. So, the only option is to have foreign investments regardless of your criticism. We are compelled to get foreign investments. China and Vietnam got their economic development by foreign investments.”

Minister informed the House the time is right to change rather hanging on to the conventional thinking, which will not take Sri Lanka any further. “Jiang Zemin the former Chinese President came here long years ago. He inspected our free trade zones but established a developed version back in his country. It was known as Shenzhen Development. Vietnam has also come forward and the communist party has split into two. Some are in favour of foreign investment and the others oppose it. It was correct to have taken a loan from the Chinese for the Port City. We were in the Cabinet, which took that decision. Only China was there at that moment for us to lend. If you look at the recently held economic conference Zoros, Ricardo Osman, Stiglitz held that we are fortunate to have powerful neighbours,” said the Minister.

 “Almost all the key US brands have opened up representation in China. China and the Vietnam offered cheap labour to US businesses, which was the turning point. But today, China has fallen simply because of US investments going back as a result of the increased Federal Rates. This is the flight of capital. Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the new policy of the Chinese. We should have moderate leaders and officers to harness this growth potential. We no longer can be enemies with nations. If Obama can talk to the Iranian President on telephone, why can’t we use the same principle,” he added.