The graduates who received their appointment letters today will be required to take the lead in modernizing their villages while solving villagers’ problems and upgrading their livelihoods, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
The Prime Minister was addressing the gathering at a ceremony to grant appointment letters to 3,880 graduates in the first stage as part of a policy to absorb 16,800 graduates into the public service. The ceremony was held at Temple Trees yesterday.
The Prime Minister further said appointment letters will be granted to external graduates as well under the second stage.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe further said the entire world is being modernized on a daily basis. Therefore, we have to think anew to modernize the country and go for speedy development. Since this is the 21st century, we have to think 30-40 years ahead to develop this country through the modernization.
“We have to make certain structural adjustments in our socio, economic and political arenas while protecting our cultural and traditional heritage as we march towards modernization. We have to contemplate whether we do stagnant politics or make dynamic changes in order to take this country forward in keeping with modern times. Earlier, Singaporeans used to come here for work. But today, Sri Lankans go there for work,” the Prime Minister added.
The Prime Minister said that many people are asking as to what happened to us. On the other hand, people are castigating all 225 Parliamentarians for not doing enought to uplift the people’s lives,” the Prime Minister added.
“If Singapore and Malaysia could become developed countries, we should also think a new way to become a developed country. Since the country is stable now after the Easter Sunday terror attack, our next target should be developing the country,” the Prime Minister added.
“These newly employed graduates will be utilized to develop the villages and create new income avenues for the villagers. For this to happen, we have to improve the village level production as well as tourism. It is necessary to develop the rural economy to pay back a large number of loans obtained in the past. We have made a huge social investment while paying back the loans for the last five years. Now we have to think of a new way of paying back the loans. We have to increase village level production in this regard,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said.
Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Vajira Abeywardene said Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is the only leader to have graduated from a local university after 1948 and became the country’s Prime Minister.
“He was elected to Sri Lanka Parliament at the General Election in 1977 at a young age of 28 years representing the Biyagama electorate and as the Minister of Education Services, he became the youngest Cabinet Minister. Therefore, the Prime Minister is a good example to the graduates who received their appointments today,” he added.
National Policies and Economic Affairs, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development, Vocational State Minister Niroshan Perera and Public Administration and Disaster Management Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandra also spoke.
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