Sri Lanka today enjoys a degree of political stability which has no parallel at any other time in its post-independence history, Professor G.L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development and International Trade and Acting Minister of Posts and Telecommunication, said recently.

He was addressing the annual business awards ceremony of the Sri Lanka-Malaysia Business Council at the Hilton Hotel.

Prof. Peiris and Malaysian High Commissioner Rosli Ismail were the Chief Guests on this occasion.

The results of all elections held in different regions of the Island over the last eight months indicate an overwhelming national consensus which is a powerful stimulus to trade and investment, the Minister said.

The most prominent feature of the outcome of the Uva Provincial Council election is the unprecedented support which the government has received from all sections of the community, demonstrating that this emphatic endorsement cuts across all frontiers of ethnicity, religious belief and cultural background. It is an achievement of which the government is legitimately proud, Prof. Peiris observed.

We are today in a situation in which stability is decisively enhanced not only by the eradication of terrorism from Sri Lankan soil but by far-reaching action which has begun to be taken for the dismantling of the international financial network of the LTTE, he added.

The facility which has been successfully negotiated with the International Monetary Fund increases significantly the government’s capability to maintain fiscal stability both domestically and in the external environment, in relation to foreign reserves, the exchange rate and the interest rate.

The experience of both Sri Lanka and Malaysia highlights the reality that there are no universal solutions to national economic issues – that there is no size which fits all. During the administration of former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia declined to adopt the traditional prescriptions offered by Michel Comdessus, the Managing Director of the IMF at that time, and achieved rapid recovery by resorting to home-grown solutions. The social and cultural circumstances of the country in question are of overriding importance in this regard, Minister Peiris stressed.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the trade and investment relationship between Sri Lanka and Malaysia is that, while Malaysia is one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka, this is no longer a one-way relationship. Sri Lankan companies like Carsons, Mackwoods, Aitken Spence and Richard Pieries & Co. have invested substantially in palm oil plantations in Malaysia, and Malaysian companies like Dialog and Maxeis have assumed the stature of market leaders in Sri Lanka, he continued.

There has come into being in Sri Lanka today an environment in which it is possible to derive the fullest benefit from our country’s unique potential, in terms of the quality of its human resources. As a landmark achievement in this field, Prof. Peiris referred to the Uva-Wellassa University, built at a cost of Rs.2 billion, which offers demand driven courses of study, concentrating on addition of value to the nation’s natural resources, and has succeeded in securing lucrative employment for the vast majority of its first batch of graduating students.

Minister Peiris called on Malaysian investors to take advantage of the extensive opportunities now available, especially in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and tourism. He dealt with the benefits accruing to investors from the mechanisms of the Board of Investment, and the vistas of opportunity which have been opened up by bilateral trade relationships with the Indian sub-continent.