Sri Lanka should be transformed to a place where people would like to stay rather than leave for greener pastures, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawake said.
He added that the Presidential candidate of the alliance led by the UNP will have to work towards this end by making a pledge before the people.
As much as 15 percent of the country’s population is settled down in foreign lands as the Sri Lankan ‘Diaspora’, he told at a meeting of professionals and officials recently.
Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development strives make Sri Lanka a better place for them to support whenever that country needs external support.
Sri Lanka should therefore encourage those Sri Lankans working abroad to return with experience, capital and better management techniques, he stressed.
Over 2.5 million Sri Lankans have left the country for foreign employment during the past ten years.
Of this, 51,000 are professionals including doctors, engineers and accountants who climbed the ladder of social status benefitting from free education .
In Sri Lanka, over 25,000 doctors and 53,000 professionals are serving in the public sector.
Though the country had the target of increasing its growth rate to above 8% in the medium, as the World Bank has predicted in its Development Update for 2019, the expected growth in the next three year period will be around 3.5%.
This cannot be raised unless the country gains from those who had left for overseas some time back, the Minister added.
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