This was disclosed  at a discussion presided by  the Minister of Judicial Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reform Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa and President’s Secretary Mr. Saman Ekanayake, yesterday (19) at the Presidential Secretariat.

A special program to prevent the use of toxic and dangerous drugs by integrating all the agencies involved in drug prevention is to be implemented under this task force. The future activities and plans were discussed at length.

Special attention was paid to the problem of the spread of drugs among schoolchildren.

Immediate measures to be taken to prevent the spread of drugs were also discussed.

Drug prevention, identifying drug addicts and drug dealers, providing treatment and counselling services for drug addicts were also discussed.

Attention was also paid to the inmates who are currently in prison due to drug addiction. The measures to be taken in this regarding and the formal treatment to be done for them in prisons were also discussed.

Further discussion regarding the passing of an Act to empower voluntary centres, community-based rehabilitation, probation services, as well as to rehabilitate drug addicts were also discussed at length.

Minister of Public Security Tiran Allas, Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reform Wasantha Perera, Commissioner of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya, Commissioner General Rehabilitation Major General D. D. U. K. Hettiarachchi (Retired), Shakya Nanayakkara of the National Board of Control for Dangerous Drugs, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Kamal Silva, Director General of the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment Rama Murthy and several others attended the event.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these remarks during his meeting with the officers of the National Trade Negotiations Committee at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday (04).

The President instructed the officers at length about free trade negotiations as well as the future outlook of international trade and on aligning policy priorities in this regard.

He further stated that in parallel to the expansion of international trade activities, the government will implement a Trade Adjustment Program to support the local industries to further adjust with competition.

Access to regional and global supply chains and re-engagement with the global economy to enhance export and export-oriented foreign direct investment is an element of the government’s economic reform program to revitalize the domestic economy.

Accordingly, while further penetrating into the main export markets of USA and Europe, the government is currently engaged in an effort to establish comprehensive free trade agreements targeting large and emerging economies in order increase exports.

For this purpose, the government has taken steps to establish a National Trade Negotiation Committee (NTNC) and the main task of this committee is to revive the negotiations of free trade agreements with strategic importance to India, China and Thailand markets where large foreign direct investment and export potential is prevalent and local industries affected by the economic crisis can obtain capital inputs, raw materials and intermediate goods at a lower cost.

The Secretary to the President and the Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Food Security as well as officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General’s Department, the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce and senior officials from the line Ministries and several others attended this meeting.

President Media Division (PMD)
06.11.2022

Sri Lanka no longer qualifies for International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans due to a downgrade of the country’s credit rating.

Therefore, the Cabinet approved a proposal yesterday (10) to request the World Bank to grant the country eligibility to obtain loans offered by the International Development Association (IDA).

This is with the aim of obtaining concessionary funding from the International Development Association (IDA) – an arm of the World Bank that helps the world’s vulnerable countries. This facility is called “Gap”.

Twelve countries including Indonesia have availed themselves of this facility when they were facing an economic downturn similar to Sri Lanka. The Government is pursuing a “reverse graduation” policy for a limited period of time.

Earlier today (11), Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena said that the Cabinet has granted approval to the proposal to downgrade Sri Lanka’s status from Middle Income Country to a Low Income Country to facilitate future loans following the information provided by world organizations.

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