Prez intervened when angry PM lashed out at businessman
President Maithripala Sirisena had to intervene when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe became annoyed with a leading businessman at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held on Tuesday at the Presidential Secretariat and reconvened it after the suspension of the meeting, SLFP dissident group front liner S.B. Dissanayaka said yesterday.
He (Prime Minister) had said ‘this man also a Rajapaksa no’ and blamed Dr. Rajapaksa which compelled President Sirisena to stop the meeting and meet them seperately There is no doubt that the collapse of the national economy, uncontrolled depreciation of the rupee, continuous increase of fuel prices and related price hike of all essential commodities are the direct results of these policies
He said Mr. Wickremesinghe had not been happy about the views expressed by DSI Group chairman Dr. Samson Rajapaksa when he said he was now importing leather products, mainly shoes from China.
“He (Prime Minister) had said ‘this man also a Rajapaksa no’ and blamed Dr. Rajapaksa which compelled President Sirisena to stop the meeting and meet them seperately ,” Mr. Dissanayaka said.
Addressing the weekly news briefing of the SLFP rebel group in Colombo yesterday, Mr. Dissanayaka said the neo liberal economic policies of the UNP prepared and operated by the threesome, Malik, Paskaralingam and Charitha did not suit today’s needs of the country and the failure in the economy was brought about by them.
“There is no doubt that the collapse of the national economy, uncontrolled depreciation of the rupee, continuous increase of fuel prices and related price hike of all essential commodities are the direct results of these policies,” he stressed.
The unrestricted permission given to import anything and everything including non essential goods like kites, joss sticks, green gram, soybeans and various other food varieties and toys have drained billions of dollars out of the country. Almost all these imports can be easily produced in Sri Lanka. Result is the sharp depreciation of rupee and mounds of debts,” Mr. Dissanayaka noted. Mr. Dissanayaka pointed out that Mr. Wickremesinghe and his government did not have a strategy to restore the confidence among investors and develop the tea and rubber industry, tourism and garment industry.all these main exports are on the decline. this government started business by driving away investors by saying the country was in a precarious situation with trillions of rupees in debt and the economy had been totally destroyed by Rajapaksa regime that resulted all investors fleeing Sri Lanka.
The government had no solution when investors divert their funds invested in Sri Lanka bond market to US who pays a higher interest rate. So many other investors had pumped money into economies in other fast developing Asian countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand while Sri Lanka is lagging behind. The government has also failed to use the GSP+ and lifting of fish exports to UE to country’s advantage, Mr. Dissanayaka charged.