5 January 2022 09:38 am Views - 121
Visiting UN Assistant Secretary General Kanni Wignaraja yesterday commended Sri Lanka’s green agriculture programme, at a meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat.
Ms. Wignaraja serves as the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and
the Pacific.
Ms. Wignaraja said Sri Lanka was ranked 87th out of 165 countries in the 2021 Sustainable Development Report, moving seven points ahead from the previous year’s ranking. The possibility of attracting foreign investors to the green agriculture programme by further developing these conditions was also discussed.
The President pointed out the steps being taken by Sri Lanka to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals while seeking solutions to the socio-economic impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The President said that a comprehensive mechanism has been set up for this purpose, including the Presidential Task Force on Economic Revival and Poverty Alleviation and the Presidential Task Force on Creating a Green Sri Lanka and Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change.
UNDP Resident Representative Robert Juhkam, Deputy Resident Representative Malin Herwig, Secretary to the President P.B. Jayasundera, Principal Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga were also present.