Rauff Hakeem sees Prez as most economically conversant

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

Opposition MP, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader Rauff Hakeem yesterday said he has no cross purposes on the budget speech of President Ranil Wickremesinghe whom he said is a most economically conversant person.

“We congratulate President Wickremesinghe on his maiden budget and request him to deliver what has been promised by him,” MP Hakeem said speaking during the second reading debate on the budget.

“I don’t oppose the proposal to restructure state-owned organisations such as Waters Edge like the other opposition members.  These low-hanging fruits such as Waters Edge could be got rid of easily,” he said.
“The President talked about Lee Kuan Yew who had once said that he chose the hard and correct path while Late Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike chose the popular part. He also talked about the Vietnamese Foreign Minister visiting Sri Lanka to study Sri Lanka’s economic policy in the 1980s and at that time Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves were $ 2,8 billion and Vietnam’s 1.4 billion. Vietnam’s foreign reserves had grown by more than $ 100 billion. Where are we today?. Therefore we don’t have any cross purposes on President’s budget speech,” he added. 

• I don’t oppose the proposal to restructure state-owned organisations such as Waters Edge like the other opposition members