Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that in partnership with the AIIB, the government plans to implement the Urban Regeneration Programme which aims at relocating 50,000 low and lower middle-income households living in slums and shanties in Colombo City into new apartments.
The Minister further said that the main focus of the concept of 'Sustainable Cities' should be on serving the poorest segments of the society by providing better living and working conditions for them by ensuring affordable housing, health care, water, sanitation and electricity.
Samaraweera made these remarks at the Third Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) held yesterday in Mumbai, India.
He also reiterated that the Sri Lankan government has accorded high priority to achieve sustainable development in urban areas, while taking various policy measures to uplift the living conditions of the poor. "My government introduced a new Cabinet Portfolio three years back only to manage city development under the Megapolis and Western Region Development Ministry. In line with the Megapolis Development Plan, various development activities have been initiated targeting both economic and social development", Samaraweera said.
Noting the frequent occurrence of natural disasters and the severity of their impact, the Minister said that various measures are being implemented to mitigate the effects of natural disasters and solicited the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's assistance in this regard.
"The project of Reduction of Landslide Vulnerability Mitigation Measures is aimed at implementing mitigation measures and thereby minimizing the damages caused from landslides. It is evident that both the frequency of occurrence of disasters and their severity have been increasing in the recent past. Therefore, the AIIB collaboration was solicited for disaster risk reduction strategies to minimize the damages".
Samaraweera also underscored the importance of protecting lagoons and estuaries as envisioned in the Blue-Green Budget proposed by him last year.
"The theme of my National Budget Proposals for 2018 was Blue-Green Economy. In this context, we recognised the inalienable relevance of ocean related economic potential of our country as an Island. Sri Lanka hosts over hundred lagoons and estuaries.
Environmental sustainability of those precious water bodies will ensure the well being of many aquatic resources. Therefore, we expect to implement a lagoon development project in the country for which the AIIB could become a strong partner in due course", he added.
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