Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Thursday, 25 December 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
“President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s far-sighted vision has seen unprecedented development in Sri Lanka during the past decade. According to the 2013 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,Government investment in infrastructure, which was Rs. 90.3 billion (4.3% of the GDP) in 2004, has increased steadily to Rs. 447 billion (5.2% of the GDP) in 2013.
“Of this, investment in economic services which bear long-term benefits greatly exceeds the investment in social services. The funds allocated for a few of the mega infrastructural projects in the past decade to develop highways, ports, aviation, railway, power, energy, irrigation, water supply and sanitation sectors are given below. The investment for these projects, some of which are being carried out concurrently are many times more in magnitude than the investment made on theMahaweli Project, which was the largest infrastructural development project which was carried out in Sri Lanka before President Rajapaksa took office.
“Although there were numerous allegations of mass corruption at that time, people do not speak about it now when they are reaping the benefits of the project. Commissions and payoffs are inevitable in developing countries but the Head of State should take steps to minimise it,” he said.
“The primary responsibility of the Head of State is to ensure the security and safety of the people and safeguard the territorial integrity of the nation while the Parliament should be responsible for good governance. Even in a normal family unit it is the father who is looked upon to provide security, shelter and provide for the family while the mother will manage the household and take care of the family’s wellbeing. It is only when a country is developing that other countries in the world will raise issues on labour law violations, human rights violations and call for good governance.”
Drinking water Projects - Vavuniya (Rs. 472 million)
“The World Bank reports show that Sri Lanka’s GDP, which was $ 20.66 billion in 2004 has risen to $ 67.18 billion and the GDP growth rate stood at 7.3% in 2013. The GNI per capita had risen from $ 4,750 to $ 9,470 during the same period as shown in the table below. It is because of the positive growth and stability in the country that lending institutions have come forward to finance mega infrastructure projects proposed by the Government. Reports show that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which was $ 223 billion in 2004, had increased to $ 1421 billion in 2013. But isn’t the positive growth in the Sri Lanka economy and standard of living proof of good governance?” Prof. Senarathna pointed out. “It will take many decades for the nation to recover the capital investment made for infrastructure and it will be future generations that will reap the full benefits, but the people have already benefited due to investment on social infrastructure. For example, Poverty has decreased from the 28.8% in 1996 to 6.7% in 2013. The unemployment rate of the labour force in Sri Lanka, which was at a high of 7.2%, has gradually decreased to 4% in 2012 compared to the unemployment rate In the United Kingdom which has increased from 4.7% to 7.9% of the countries’ labour force during the same period. Sri Lanka, which is among the top literate nations in the world, had a literacy rate of 95.6% in 2000 which had improved to 98.5% in 2012 according to World Bank Statistics. Computer Literacy, which was almost negligible in 2000, stood at 35% in 2012 and is expected to rise to 75% by 2016. In 2004 a sum of Rs 7,622 million (2.03% of GDP) was allocated for higher education while a sum of Rs. 22,752 million (1.75% of GDP) was allocated in 2013. The number of students who were admitted to universities increased from 64,801 in 2004 to 78,442 in 2013 while academic staff has increased from 3,725 to 5,457 during the same period. Rs. 34,419 million was spent on health in 2004 while Rs. 119,530 million was spent in 2013. Five hospitals and 106 primary healthcare units were added during this period bringing the total number of hospitals to 603 and Primary Health Care Units to 481. Sri Lanka ranks number one with the lowest infant mortality and maternal mortality rate among SAARC nations. The maternal mortality rate, which stood at 55 per 100,000 live births, has come down to 35 in 2010 and infant mortality, which was 12 per 1000 live births, has decreased to eight in 2013. As at 2013, 97.65% of the population had access to electricity compared to the 82.35% in 2009 while 33.34% of the population had been provided with water supply by 2013. There were 20,315,150 cellular phone users and 2,706,787 fixed line subscribers as at 2013. Sri Lanka ranked 12th among twenty top achievers out of 191 nations in absolute and relative overall progress in achieving its millennium goals as at September 2010.
