President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Finance Minister, has succeeded in rescuing Sri Lanka from bankruptcy in the face of a major crisis in the world economy and the war situations in the Middle East and Ukraine, UNP Chairman and Parliamentarian Vajira Abeywardena said.
Speaking at a press conference in Colombo yesterday, Abeywardena said President Wickremesinghe as the Finance Minister has given the leadership to strengthen the collapsed country, making the Sri Lankan rupee the most liquid currency in the financial market.
“The Sri Lankan rupee has been moving very strongly against the US dollar in recent weeks. According to the Central Bank report, the rupee has strengthened for the first time since June last year. According to a recent report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Sri Lanka’s economy can grow by 1.9 percent in 2024 and 2.5 percent in 2025,” he said.
Abeywardena said that Bloomberg, which presents data on the world’s recognized financial markets, also stated that the Sri Lankan rupee has achieved a remarkable growth rate and it is at the top of the financial market now.
“In such a situation, people in the country should act carefully and look at the current situation logically. As the UNP leader in 2020, President Wickremesinghe strongly declared not to change the path of moving the country forward. He predicted if the path was changed, the country would need US$ 3,000 million in 2021 and US$ 6,000 million in 2022.
He strongly said that if the path was changed, the country will definitely collapse. But the public did not accept it at that time and followed fairy tales presented by rulers and the result was the collapse of the country. Because of that, a single member of the United National Party has become a Member of Parliament, a Prime Minister, a President of this country by setting a world record. Today he has become a protector of nearly twenty million people.
“Now, the Sri Lankan public should think about the nomination of the next President who should be qualified to work with the leaders of our neighboring countries.
“When we look at the people running for the Presidency, most of them are manipulated by other people. No one in the world can handle a national leader like Ranil Wickremesinghe. He is able to take proper decisions on international politics alone and Sri Lanka will definitely be protected for the future generations because we have a leader who can handle the foreign status, financial status and economic status alone, to raise Sri Lanka as a leading country in Asia and the world. It is not surprising that if a leader like him is not protected, Sri Lanka will become a colony in Asia again.
“In this New Year, we must first acknowledge that many unfortunate events happened to the country, the nation, the economy and the entire people due to the shortcomings of all the leaders who ruled our country for many years after independence. Even now, no political party can escape from it. For example, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has also contributed to ruling this country. The party has held several ministerial posts. During the tenure of those Ministers, the country’s economy has been neglected. President Wickremesinghe has also taken over the massive debt taken by them and taken steps to pay off the debt without harming the country.”
Irangika Range