Ronnie de Mel celebrates 96th birthday
Ronnie de Mel, Sri Lanka’s veteran, retired politician and who holds the record for the largest number of budgets presented by a finance minister, celebrates his 96th birthday today (April 11).
A former civil servant, he was the Minister of Finance from 1977 to 1988 under the United National Party government and was instrumental in guiding economic reforms and the free market economy in Sri Lanka.
He joined the Ceylon Civil Service (CCS) in 1948, and was appointed as Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, thereafter quitting in 1967 to enter politics.
“If not for the free market economy we would still be having scarcities, queues and we would be struggling like North
Korea today. It was because of this change that everything in this country blossomed and developed,” he was once quoted by newspapers as saying.
According to observers, one of the most important changes in those economic reforms was reducing state involvement in economic activity and a reduction of welfare measures.