The Northern Province (NP) can increase its current GDP contribution from 4.6% to 10% if the required facilities are provided, Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vethanayahan told the Asian Development Bank (ADB) delegation at a meeting held on August 24 in Jaffna.
The governor also appreciated and thanked ADB for providing drinking water from the ADB financed desalination plant stating that it was a very good achievement and expressed optimism that all the people in the peninsula could benefit from it. He said the second major issue Jaffna faced was not having a proper sewerage system and urged ADB support to address that issue as well.
Vethanayahan said the government has also initiated plans to establish new Investment Zones in the Northern Province to accelerate regional economic growth and boost export-oriented manufacturing. The three strategic economic hubs being developed in the North are located at Kankesanthurai (KKS), Paranthan, and Mankulam. In Kankesanthurai (KKS) a planned 250-acre zone situated at the former Kankesanthurai Cement Corporation premises, designated primarily for apparel manufacturing and Information Technology (IT) projects and in Paranthan a 230-acre industrial estate located at the Paranthan Chemicals Company premises is planned specialized for chemical production and industrial manufacturing.
A 500-acre hub focused on agriculture and fisheries-based export industries is planned for Mankulam Governor Vethanayahan said the land transformation process was going on and when its complete the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka will provide the basic facilities, water supply, road connections, electricity and other infrastructure required. He said the government will then invite the investors to come and invest.
“Now there is a very conducive environment after the new government came to power. Investors are very willing to come to invest here. That is a very positive sign. So, we expect that if the BOI is ready with the areas to invest, investors are ready to come,” he said.
The Governor also noted that the Northern Province had witnessed a bumper harvest in the agriculture sector in the four districts with the exception of the Jaffna district, in the Yala and Maha seasons due to most of the tanks getting full due to Ditwah showers and the continuous rain up to April.
He said although, the government has set a fixed controlled price for paddy and when the government completes its allocated quota, the private traders offer very low prices to the farmers. As a result, farmers and consumers get affected and the middle man gets the full benefit. To address this problem this time the government has allocated more funds and the Cabinet also has approved interest free loans to the corporate sector to purchase paddy. Vethanayahan said another question that the farmers face is selling their field crops, although a few supermarket chains purchase vegetables in very limited quantities and the prices are very low. He said therefore they need some processing centers and storage facilities soon to address that problem. He said the fishing sector also faced the same predicament due to the lack of processing and storage facilities and urged ADB support to address that issue.
The governor said the Elephant Pass saltern has commenced production and approval has also been given to commence operations in the Kurinchathivu (Kunjathive) Saltern. He said on the other hand there were applications submitted daily to open salterns and many industries have already started producing good salt and in the future Sri Lanka need not import salt but export them. He said another issue they faced was acquiring land that had been gazetted under the Wildlife and Forest Department in 2012 without the knowledge of the District Secretary or the people and they were making arrangements to release the land.
Source : Daily News