Sri Lanka president raps MPs backing him now over opposing FDI
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe rapped some lawmakers backing him now over their past protest against foreign direct investment (FDI) while misleading the public with false information.
Attempts by Wickremesinghe-led center-right United National Party (UNP) to bring in FDI were opposed by center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and current ruling nationalist Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) with some false allegations.
As a result, some of the FDI were dragged for years and some were cancelled.
Most of the lawmakers who opposed Wickremesinghe’s FDI projects are now backing him after strong public protests against the family ruling for former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has ousted all Rajapaksas from key ministerial portfolio.
“The enormous loss caused to our country due to the opposition to foreign investments because of here say, without checking, cannot be qualified,” Wickremesinghe told the parliament in his first policy statement since became the president on July 20.
“When we tried to develop the oil tank complex in Trincomalee together with India, it was stated that Sri Lanka would be a sell out of to India and this development project was halted. If at that time we were allowed to develop the oil tank complex, today people would not have to spend many days in queues for fuel.”
“Even when the ‘Suvasarya’ ambulance service was initiated, a similar objection was raised. Some doctors held press conferences stating that ‘if the patient comes to the hospital by the ‘Suvasariya’ ambulance service, deaths will occur’. However we somehow initiated the ‘Suvasariya’ service and thereby thousands of lives have been saved.”
Suvasarya is the emergency ambulance service and officials of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), a staunch Rajapaksa supporting health sector trade union said people will die if they use the Indian-granted ambulance and India will recruit some of its intelligence officials as the ambulance driver.
However, the project has been running for more than five years and was instrumental in saving lived during COVID-19 pandemic.
Wickremesinghe also reminded about a large Japanese project which was signed under him in 2017 but unilaterally cancelled by former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa hurting Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations with Japan.
“When Japan offered to establish the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and develop the Container Terminal in the port, it was opposed by giving a number of baseless reasons,” the President said.
“Therefore, our country lost more than 3 billion dollars in investments. Regrettably the traditional friendship between Japan and Sri Lanka has been adversely affected.” (Colombo/Aug 03/2022)
