Minister says international assistance helped Sri Lanka’s resettlement work
Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has attributed Sri Lanka’s rapid development to direct government participation in expediting public welfare measures.
Speaking to a UN team and a group of intellectuals from New York who called on him at the Parliamentary complex, Minister Rajapaksa said the government had created a suitable environment for resettling people in the North-East after demining the former terrorist-occupied areas. He said, around 300,000 displaced persons had been resettled in their villages within two years.
The Minister said he appreciated the assistance given for resettlement work to Sri Lanka by countries like India, Australia, China and Japan, including several international NGOs and other organisations. He said, their assistance had helped the government to develop the infrastructure of these areas, to provide the resettled people with education, drinking water, electricity, agricultural needs, health facilities and livelihood.
The construction of an efficient road network including expressways helped to provide such facilities island-wide by raising production levels and creating new economic opportunities.
International assistance had also helped in the reconstruction of railway lines destroyed during the ethnic conflict, linking the North and South and the restoration of reservoirs, tanks and bunds, which boosted agricultural development, the Minister said.