22 November 2024 12:22 am Views - 186
| President Anura Kumara Dissanayake |
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday outlined ambitious plans to boost the country’s economy through targeted development in tourism, IT, fisheries, and mineral resources, while stressing the importance of public-private partnerships and a reorientation of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector.
“The tourism sector is the quickest strategy to increase revenue of our goods and services,” Dissanayake said addressing the parliament yesterday.
“We have prepared a tourism industry policy to attract 4 billion tourists and grow the industry to 8 billion dollars in 3-4 years.”
Focus is also on the rapidly growing global IT industry.
“We need experienced professionals high in IT literacy. There are around 85,000 now. We intend to grow this to 200, 000,” he said. Currently generating US$ 1.2 billion in annual earnings from the IT sector, the country plans to expand this to US$ 5 billion, with Dissanayake noting that “ICT is one area where we can make an exponential leap.”
Highlighting Sri Lanka’s geographic advantage, Dissanayake said the country has significant potential to grow its commercial and naval sectors, with Colombo Port playing a pivotal role.
“Colombo Port has an important place among global ports, but are those that obtain services happy about its efficiency and management?” he questioned, urging improvements in port operations. The fisheries sector, supported by a recently introduced fuel subsidy, was identified as another area for economic growth. “Fisheries sector can provide a boost to our economy,” he said.
Dissanayake also pointed to untapped opportunities in mineral resources, advocating for value addition through collaborations with the private sector.
“Without value addition, we have been unable to earn the full potential revenue from this. We will grow this sector through public-private partnerships,” he said, emphasising that such collaborations are necessary where technology or capital are lacking.
The President also called for a restructured SME sector that aligns with national priorities.
“The small and medium enterprises is not a sector that works according to its own wants and according to its own decisions,” he said. “We have to gain a new expansion of the SME sector according to the wants of the State, the requirement of the government. We have made the plans.”