Minister of Engineering Services and Construction Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said 2,000 employment opportunities for Sri Lankans would be found in the building construction sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in January 2009 and there would be more employment opportunities in other countries as well for trained personnel.

Padma Udayashantha Gunsekara (JVP) said the House should congratulate the queen of the Sri Lankan cinema Malini Fonseka who had brought honour and fame to the country by winning an international award at an international film festival,

Film director Jayantha Chandrasiri was also going to produce a film on the national hero King Dutta Gamani that was also to be exhibited before the international audiences, he said.

Piyasiri Wijenayaka (NFF) said though an indigenous economy was the goal of the present government it had even imported two container loads of firecrackers while there were hundreds of fireworks makers in the Kimbulapitiya area. "We are still importing salt and Kurakkan," he said.

Minister of Youth Affairs Pavithra Wanniarachchi said she was happy to hold the youth affairs portfolio at a time when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was trying to bring together the youth of the North and South. For the first time in several years Batticaloa and Mannar Districts had entered youth competitions held by the National Youth Service Council.

She said the main problem among youth was unemployment but the NYSC was training youth in batches in the districts. During the current year 2500 youth were trained in employment skills including computer and English language. This would be increased to 5,000 next year while vocational training for 18,000 youth would be trained for employment in addition by the NYSC. The youth had also been involved in the food production drive while a programme to build 4000 volley ball courts to help youth to become disciplined sportsmen was among the services of the NYSC.

Minister of Child Development and Women Empowerment Sumedah G. Jayasena said women and children accounted for 51 and 36 per cent of the population respectively. A programme to provide milk to the children of underprivileged families was started last year with an allocation of 500 million rupees from the budget and in 2009 it had been increased to 600 million rupees. Although this would not reach all the undernourished children, about 47,500 children of the low income groups had benefited this year and it would be extended to cover a larger number of such children in 2009,

A national action plan for women empowerment was also to be formulated while eleven counseling centres for women had been set up and more than 1900 women with problems had benefited from it.

Minister of Industrial Development Kumara Welgama said UNP’s Ravi Karunanayake had said the armed forces had not gone beyond Mannar while the armed forces were at Kilinochchi and were about to capture the LTTE’s headquarters.

It was the village youth who were fighting against terrorist and scoring victories. The past leaders of the UNP from J. R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa and the present leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had opted for ceasefires with the LTTE but they could not find a solution to the problem the minister noted.

Mangala Samaraweera had said the Army Commander was not even fit to be the commander of the Salvation Army but the people would give them a good response for their actions when the time came. The war had to be conducted correctly by the armed forces while the government was giving priority to development. A number of incentives and measures of relief had be given like reduction the fuel adjustment charges and reduction of the percentage of VAT he said.