It is now impossible to stick to rigid economic theories and think that everything should be done by the government - Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said it is now impossible to stick to rigid economic theories and continue think that everything should be done by the government.

Speaking at the launching the national programme to develop five hundred villages through Sanasa Development Societies recently under the title "Let’s reduce expenditure, let’s increase revenue", he said that the selflessness was one of the most important qualities that our country and our society have been blessed with. Every village that grew up through self-sacrifice joined hands and helped each other and strengthened all the main sectors of the national production of our country. Together, we added the strong endowment of our labour to the national produce without expecting a salary. That was our history, he said.

“From that past values of the people, the Sanasa movement was able to launch a strong program through the village economy by gathering the human qualities of the people. Sanasa is an organization that provides a model which is more realistic and simple that has been converted from the membership donation, which is more realistic and simple, to launch a simplified and effective loan system for villagers. Those cooperative objectives gave the rural people the opportunity to raise their heads to earn income from various rural produces in every province of our country”.

Whatever economic theories and philosophies are followed, the public institutions of our country take money from the treasury and spend it annually. It is admitted that domestic and foreign expenditure is extremely wasteful. But it is mentioned as “spending”. It may take more than a year to find out if there is any effectiveness of it or not. A set of guidelines and policies that can be used systematically for the national development of our people should be established and implemented with the contribution of the people. Also, there is no such thing as the government should do everything based on rigid economic theories.

The banking system we expected has changed. Because of the crisis, we have had to save the banks. Debts in the banks must be taken separately and transferred to a separate institution; the banks should be made free from this burden of debts and the service of the banks has to be used by people for their industrial needs. We hope that this programme can be successfully negotiated with Sanasa.

Founder of the Sanasa Movement Mr. P.A Kiriwandeniya addressed the gathering and several representatives of the movement participated in the event.