Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday (08) gave a comprehensive outline of his blueprint to develop Sri Lanka and Focused on areas beyond national security which will fast track the countries development process.

Addressing the annual convention of the Viyathmaga organization, under the title ‘Actioning the Blueprint’ Rajapaksa emphasized the importance of establishing a creditable and firm decision making mechanism to achieve economic targets.

“If we look at the Asian region the population is close to 5 billion people. That is a large middle class in this region with high purchasing power. We should look at these Asian markets and find opportunities there without always relying upon our traditional markets. Foreign direct investments across Asia are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs annually. This has attracted the global private equity industry to Asia which has already surpassed Europe as the world’s second highest private equity destination after the United States,” he said

Rajapaksa further believes that foreign direct investment should be encouraged strategically.

‘We must safeguard our sovereignty, local entrepreneurs and businesses. We need an FDI policy that will attract investments which can transfer technologies and knowledge and increase our productivity,” he added.

Speaking further he also noted that the support of domestic and foreign investors is essential to accelerate the nation’s economic development.  

Rajapaksa also said that he believes investment and development can be fast-tracked if a credible and firm decision-making machinery is established within a transparent governance framework.