Large part of budget to areas freed from LTTE: Lankan minister

Noting that Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka witnessed no growth under Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) control, its home minister Sarath Amunugama today said a large part of this year's budget will be allocated to these regions to drive their development.

"The government had taken a policy decision to invest largely (in Northern and Eastern provinces). It is only fair that we do that, because there has been no growth there for three decades. In the coming budget, large part of the allocation would go for Northern and Eastern regions," Amunugama told the World Economic Forum India Summit here.

Participating in an interactive session on the 'Next Chapter of Sri Lanka's Growth', the Lankan minister said the government was more than committed to help the regions "catch up" with the development in other parts of the island nation, as the war with the LTTE successfully ended this May and the "terrorist outfit" eliminated.

On the political front, he said the government would implement the 13th Constitutional Amendment, which made Tamil an official language and English a link language apart from providing for establishment of provincial councils, fully and faithfully.

"There can be no two levels of citizenship in Sri Lanka, just as there be no two citizenship in India. The 13th Amendment follows the Indian example. Our commitment is absolute. I assure you, this battle was with the LTTE and not against the Tamil people. Sri Lanka has to be a fair country," he said.

Amunugama said the Northern and Eastern provinces were not integrated with the general growth pattern of the rest of Sri Lanka for long and this situation needed to be changed.

He said for Sri Lanka's growth, targeted at 8% for the next two years, it would be best for it to work with India, which is the dominant partner in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), but it could use models of  Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

"We need to work closely with India and the priority will be to work with the Asian giant and make best use of the opportunity to expand relations with Asean. India is a growing economy and as a neighbour, we could benefit with our strength lying in services. We have to use the Indian economic growth for our own development," he said.

India would play an important role in the growth, he said adding, as it becomes a world economic power, the growth would help Sri Lanka too. "We have to ride piggyback on Indian growth. Then we will be doing well," he added.

"Sri Lanka was the first in South Asia to break into a free trade market. Even India was throwing envious glances at the growth of Sri Lanka," he said.

Apart from services, the island nation should focus on agriculture to make rice production surplus from the present self-reliant situation, Amunugama said.

The Lankan government was also concentrating on infrastructure development, be it roads, airports and seaports with aid from the US, the UK and recently from India, China, Japan, Iran and Libya.