Sri Lanka is entering a new phase of economic growth after the recent resolution of the conflict with the LTTE.

The integration of the Northern and Eastern provinces to the economy of the whole country is also important to the country’s future economic development, Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Sarath Amunugama said at the sessions of the World Economic Summit held in India recently.

Minister Amunugama addressing the Summit outlined that Sri Lanka would make every effort to accelerate its sustainable economic and social development ensuring peace and stability. The end of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and integration of Sri Lanka’s North-Eastern provinces was crucially important for the country’s future economic development.

He pointed out that economically speaking Sri Lanka’s per capita GDP had doubled in the last five years and it would double again in the next five years. The salient feature was Sri Lanka was geographically positioned as a beehive of activity, especially in the services sector. At the end of 2008, GDP per capita stood at US $ 2000. It was a great achievement and the country would hope to increase up to US $ 5000 in the next few years.

Amunugama added that Sri Lanka had taken up all the economic challenges and the country had been investing heavily on infrastructure. Around US $ 2 billion was being spent to construct roads, railroads, airports and power which would be the main driver of GDP into the next decade. To facilitate this growth, Sri Lanka’s aid architecture had been transformed; traditional donors in the West had been supplanted by India, China, Japan, Iran and Libya.

He said that there was no dispute over the fact that India’s rise as a global economic giant would have effect on Sri Lanka. An agreement had been reached that India and Sri Lanka’s private sectors should establish a rapport, as a future financial hub, would expect multinational IT and Telecom companies to open business enterprises. A number of businessmen had already expressed their willingness to open such business concerns.

Amunugama emphasized that the private sector, as engine of economic growth, accounted for 80 per cent of the growth while in terms of Information Technology and other modern technologies, there was much work to be done.

New technical institutes had been established to tackle this problem. Sri Lanka’s literacy rate was high and it could boast workplace equality between men and women.

He said that the Sri Lanka Government was hopeful that although participants in the Summit had expressed their relief at the cessation of civil conflict in the country,future grievances might pose potential problems. The Government had taken a policy position to invest heavily in Sri Lanka’s North and a disproportionately large part of the forthcoming budget would be allocated to the region.