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Saturday Dec 28, 2024
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President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seen here delivering the outdoor pre-recorded address to the nation from the historic and religiously important city of Anuradhapura with Ruwanweliseya in the backdrop
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday reassured the nation to deliver socio-economic prosperity without fail despite unprecedented challenges, including the pandemic.
In his address to the nation of one hour and 10 minutes, he laboriously listed multiple challenges faced since assuming office, as well as success achieved amidst the pandemic, and a host of measures in motion and planned to overcome challenges and usher prosperity.
During his speech, the President also strongly rebutted the now famous phrase ‘Sir failed’ promoted by the Opposition and critics.
“When I contested the Presidential election, many of my supporters asked me to take the leadership placing the country as their priority. They did not make personal requests from me. But after I came to power, some people were angry with the Government for not fulfilling their personal demands,” the President said.
“They are now criticising the Government. They are attempting to spread that the Government is a failure in order to discredit it. What I want is not to change my policies to please a few, but to implement the ‘Vistas of Prosperity’ as I promised,” Rajapaksa said.
The President also reiterated that he is ready to lead the people today as he did then.
“I will fulfil my responsibility without failure,” Rajapaksa emphasised, reassuring the masses in his pre-recorded address made during daylight and outdoors from the sacred city of Anuradhapura.
“I believe that the wise people who love the country and are ready to take responsibility for future generations will continue to support me and my government in achieving our goals,” the President stressed.
He also reminded the people that Sri Lanka has got another opportunity to correct past mistakes and move forward.
“We can only prosper if we work hard with a proper plan. When history is written, it will mention the hard times we are now in. But amidst those difficulties, it is up to us to decide whether we will succeed or not,” President said.
He admitted that one of the weaknesses of the Government was that development works were not properly communicated to the people. People witnessed only problems through media platforms. Only questionable events were discussed on social media.
“Therefore, no one talked about the benefits received to the country and the people from the development projects carried out by the Government amidst the coronavirus crisis,” he said.
He urged people to be aware of the development works done by the Government even if it does not carry out propaganda activities to inflate personalities.
“Otherwise, the Government›s opponents will have the opportunity to spread false information based on political agendas. As a result of this situation, truth is being overshadowed today by lies,” the President said.
Controlling pandemic
The President also assured people that the Government will ensure that by the end of September, 13 million people will be vaccinated and secured from COVID-19. About 180 million people worldwide have contracted the virus, while nearly 3.9 million people have died from it so far. In Sri Lanka, COVID has to date infected 249,926 people and killed 2,862.
“I took special efforts in the recent past to bring down vaccines to Sri Lanka. I personally spoke to the Heads of State in countries like China and India. I also made requests by letters. I personally wrote letters to the Heads of State of Russia and other countries. We held discussions with vaccine-producing countries through our Foreign Ministry and through the Ambassadors and High Commissioners. Our officials coordinated with vaccine manufacturing companies,” President said.
“All these efforts were made because I wanted to vaccinate all the people in our country,” Rajapaksa said. He also said as a result of these efforts, the country is now receiving a large number of vaccines that is needed on a monthly basis.
He said so far, Sri Lanka has received 4.49 million doses, comprising of 1,264,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 3.1 million Sinopharm vaccine doses, and 130,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
He revealed that with vaccines being received between July and September, Sri Lanka would be able to vaccine 13 million people.
“This is a very satisfactory situation,” he said.
A breakdown of vaccines coming from July was also shared. In July, 4 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and 2.5 million doses of Sinovac are expected to be received. Arrangements have also been made to obtain 2 million Sputnik V doses. In addition, 5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, 2.5 million doses of Sinovac and 2 million doses of Sputnik V are expected in August in addition to getting down 3 million more Sinopharm vaccine doses in September.
He said Rs. 260 billion has been spent on providing relief to COVID-impacted people apart from funding a robust public healthcare system to contain the spread of pandemic.
“When the expenditure on support measures relating to the COVID-19 crisis is added to the planned subsidies, it is about half of the country’s total Government revenue of 1,380 billion rupees last year.
Thus, despite the dire situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Government has never taken actions to reduce the salaries or allowances of more than 1.4 million public servants,” the President said.
National security
Focusing on national security, he said: “The people elected me as the President in November 2019 with high expectations for the future of the country. I am committed to fulfilling those expectations, regardless of the seriousness of the obstacles. Similar to how we took on the responsibility to end the war against the LTTE, which was considered an impossible task, I am committed to liberate the country from the difficulties it faces and bring prosperity to the people,” the President reiterated.
“I always act according to a plan. When planning for the future, we must not forget the past and should properly realise the present as well,” he added.
People were reminded that the main demand of the more than 6.9 million of people who voted for him in the 2019 Presidential Election was to stabilise the country by ensuring national security, especially post-Easter Sunday terror attacks.
“We have made great strides in ensuring national security once again. The most suitable officers were appointed to responsible positions. We have re-strengthened the morals of the security forces which had deteriorated owing to various harassments. The intelligence services that were weak at that time have been reorganised. We have reactivated the security plans that were abandoned during the previous Government’s tenure,’ he added.
“During this short period of time, we have created a peaceful environment in which members of all communities and people belonging to different religions can live with dignity without causing harm to others, while preserving their identities,” the President added.
“Today, the people of this country no longer have a reason to fear for the unity of the country. This Government will not allow anyone to interfere in the internal affairs of our country,” he said, reiterating: “My government has ensured national security.”
Economy
In his speech, the President also recalled how former President Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over a country with peace and a strong economy in 2015. However, by 2019, the country’s economic growth rate slowed down to 2.1%. The debts of the country had increased to Rs. 13,000 billion from Rs. 7,400 billion. The tax burden on the people had doubled. The rupee destabilised and the prices of commodities skyrocketed. Export earnings had declined and foreign reserves had depleted.
“I acquired an economy that was in ruins. However, we understood that reality well and accepted that responsibility with a plan,” Rajapaksa said.
However, he noted the global coronavirus pandemic, which unexpectedly devastated not only, “our country but also the entire world, created an environment in which those plans could not be implemented as we had expected.”
The President also used the address to the nation to highlight the opportunities the Port City will offer Sri Lanka, including attracting higher foreign direct investments.
He detailed various measures taken as well as the success of containing COVID-19 during the first and second wave, and the on-going third wave.
“However, the economy faced many challenges due to loss of tourism etc. Businesses, including SMEs were supported via a debt moratorium to the tune of over Rs. 400 billion and concessionary working capital,” he said.
Debt servicing and import control
He also said that even though foreign exchange reserves declined, the Government has not defaulted on loan installments that should be paid to foreign financial institutions.
“We had to pay a huge loan installment of about US $ 4 billion a year as a result of loans taken by various governments in the past. The Opposition socialised a view that the Government would not be able to repay these loans. But we did not discredit the country and repaid all the loans on time,” the President said.
He said under these circumstances, it is the responsibility of the Government to prevent the occurrence of a foreign exchange crisis.
“So as a Government, we had to take some harsh decisions. That is why we had to ban some non-essential imports, especially the importation of luxury goods. These are not the restrictions that we expect to maintain forever. We hope that intelligent people, who love the country, see the future and identify the needs of the time and will extend their help to us to overcome this crisis,” he said.
The President continued: “It was a great blessing during the coronavirus pandemic that we paid special attention to the importance of food security in the country while building a people-centric economy. We did not have to face such problems when countries that depended on imported food were in trouble. Through our policies we have been able to revive the local agricultural sector.”
Promotion of organic fertiliser
He also extensively spoke on the rationale for promoting the use of organic fertiliser.
“Stopping the importation of chemical fertilisers into the country is not a hasty decision. Prior to the implementation of that decision, stocks of fertiliser required for the forthcoming season had been imported. Already 300,000 metric tons of fertiliser required for 1 and 1/2 million hectares of cultivated land has been distributed. At the same time, about 8,000 metric tons of organic fertiliser has been distributed.
The Government guarantees that all organic fertiliser required for farming will be provided for the forthcoming Maha Season. With this policy decision, a large number of entrepreneurs and companies have come forward to produce organic fertiliser in the country.
“Now we need to gradually increase the use of organic fertilisers. Together as a nation, everyone must join hands for this,” the President said, adding that Sri Lankan organic produce will fetch higher earnings in global markets.
Several other socio-economic projects and the progress were detailed as well. They included expanding housing, providing access to safe drinking water for all, employment opportunities for unemployed graduates, primary and higher education; road and highway development; irrigation development and renovation of rural tanks, development work of 100 small and medium scale cities, urban beautification projects, technology parks and promotion of renewable energy and electricity for all initiatives; and the promotion of local manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
