Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday assured that a massive development drive which ensures rapid economic growth mainly based on exports, more job opportunities and the increase of income will take place in the country within the next three years.
He made this observation addressing the opening ceremony of the Institute of Bankers Sri Lanka at the IBSL Towers in Narahenpita.
The Premier further said that the country is now in a position of pay back the loan installments obtained by the previous regime.
He further charged that in 2015, the country experienced a crisis situation where we could not even pay the loan installments.
“We had to take some hard decisions such as the increase of tax to achieve economic stability. We should appreciate the support extended by the IMF in this regard to help spur local income. Measures have already been taken to attract more investments to the country to strengthen the economy.This would enables us to payback these loans,”the Prime Minister said.
“Measures have been taken to establish a school for policy studies with the financial assistance of the government of Japan,the Prime Minister said.
Premier Wickremesinghe said the government is undertaking the restructuring of the Institute of Policy Studies.
The Premier said that the IBSL Towers will take the IBSL to the forefront of banking and finance education of the country. The IBSL must become the specialised national academy of banking and finance. The IBSL Governing Board has to have wider representation of professionals and academia for coordinating both theory and practice its operational model has to be accredited by globally recognised finance schools for quality while maintaining its local favour.
“The overriding theme and the focus of the IBSL training and qualification modules should be
prudent business and not profit maximization. The IBSL should be in a position to produce finance managers for the hub of the Indian Ocean,” the Prime Minister said.
“My legal team will be happy to review that some analysis facilitate introduction of necessary legal action that need necessary amendments to empower the IBSL with a new market base education mandate. The restructuring of the IBSL will enable it to have a major responsibility in creating the financial framework of the proposed economy,”he said.
Central Bank Governor Dr.Indrajith Coomaraswamy said the government is trying to build a new role model for the economy which is private sector driven with exports and financial institutions.
“If we look around the world today, we can observe different mixtures of the state and private sector delivering good development outcomes. But for us in Sri Lanka, our fiscal deficit and debt dynamics, we don’t have space to do that,” the Central Bank Governor said.
IBSL Chairman P.Somasiri also spoke.