Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to Dr. Juan Carretero, Director of the Centro de Estudios sobre Asia y Oceania, for having given me this opportunity to address this gathering of dignitaries, academics, researchers, diplomats, and friends! I also wish to thank Dr. Eduardo Regalado, Deputy Director, and Ms. Claudia Gonzalez, Researcher, for their contribution and help.
Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to Dr. Juan Carretero, Director of the Centro de Estudios sobre Asia y Oceania, for having given me this opportunity to address this gathering of dignitaries, academics, researchers, diplomats, and friends! I also wish to thank Dr. Eduardo Regalado, Deputy Director, and Ms. Claudia Gonzalez, Researcher, for their contribution and help.
• Firstly, the end of an almost 30-year war against separatism and terrorism;
• Secondly, an intense campaign launched by the Western-dominated media and INGOs in defense of a separatist agenda and against our President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government for eliminating a terrorist group! Let us recall that this group, known as the LTTE or Tigers, was considered even by the CIA and FBI as the best organised and most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world!
During this period, certain individuals who call themselves ‘leftists’ also attacked and criticised Cuba, Venezuela and members States of ALBA for their support to the Government of Sri Lanka.
• Thirdly, the landslide victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the recent Presidential Elections;
• Fourthly, the rapid political decline of former Army General Sarath Fonseka, opposition presidential candidate supported by the Western media, who until recently considered a national hero, but is now in remand under suspicion of having endangered the security of the nation.
These important events took place even as we were commemorating the Year of the 50th Anniversary of Friendship and Cooperation between Sri Lanka and Cuba, which began on 29 July 2009.
I am convinced that the present initiative of this Centre to organise this event is opportune and extremely useful in promoting common understanding and furthering relations between our two countries.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends !
An examination of the geostrategic importance of Sri Lanka and the geopolitical framework within which my country finds itself is essential to understanding the above events.
For imperialism, our part of the Indian Ocean is not merely a market to be conquered or a source of raw materials to be pillaged. It is the gateway to the control of resources and markets in the Near East, Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Having brought NATO to the Persian Gulf and having organized its first maritime maneuvers in October 2007, the objective of the US is to move NATO presence into the Indian Ocean by gaining a foothold in Sri Lanka. But, attainment of that goal was thwarted by the defeat of LTTE separatism and terrorism in Sri Lanka with the broad support of Sri Lanka’s friends and allies such as China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, and in Latin America, Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Bolivia, and the Non-Aligned Movement in general.
This defeat of imperialism was further borne out by the landslide victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the recent Presidential Elections.
There is no longer any doubt that Russia, China and Iran will be successful in frustrating US attempts to conquer this geo-strategic position. Its maritime decline in the Indian Ocean will continue and many observers consider as realistic the emergence in the next decade of China as a superior naval force.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
Sri Lanka, located in the southern tip of India, lies at the crossroads of all maritime routes in the region. It is an economically booming region mainly due to the rapid development of two giants: India and China, but also because of Iran and Pakistan. 70% of the global oil trade and 50% of container traffic pass through the Indian Ocean. Today, this sea route is operational with 36,000 ships passing through Sri Lanka’s southern Port of Hambantota annually, including 4,500 oil tankers. For China, Sri Lanka represents a major attraction. Not only will it facilitate the supply of its fleet, but will strengthen links with its southern province of Yunnan. Last year, China’s aid to Sri Lanka totaled $ 1 billion, ahead of Japan, whereas US aid to Sri Lanka amounted to only $ 7.4 million and British aid $ 1.9 million.
Sri Lanka has the most profound natural harbour in Asia – Trincomalee, which was used by the British Navy during World War II. Since then, the US has sought to lease Trincomalee as a re-fuelling and recreation facility for its Seventh Fleet based in Diego Garcia, and as a NATO bridgehead. It must be recalled that Trincomalee lies on territory that the Western-backed separatist organization, the LTTE, claims to be part of the Tamil homeland.
The unique geographic position of Sri Lanka makes it a natural aircraft carrier!
In a recent interview, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that Sri Lanka could, in the near future, become a trade platform or ‘hub’ for all of South Asia and for the transport of oil and gas between Eastern and Western Asia.
Sri Lanka is also rich in natural resources: tea, rubber, spices, and mineral resources such as graphite, gems (including sapphires), limestone, mineral sands, copper, iron, iron ore, dolomite, calcite, shale, clay, kaolin, etc. Other natural resources include phosphates and hydropower. Sri Lanka also has the most important herbal gardens the world’s largest variety of medicinal plants.
But more vital is the discovery that Sri Lanka owns some of the largest oil and gas fields in South Asia! Apart from huge oil and gas reserves that it shares with India in the Cauvery Basin located in the north, potential oil and gas deposits below sea bed have also been identified in the Mannar Basin (Western coast) and the Southern Basin. Much of it is on territory claimed by the separatists. Geological surveys, including the US Geological Survey and Swedish Petroscan, confirm the existence of considerable reserves. Exploration is currently being conducted by Indian and Chinese companies, with Russia soon to join.
Sri Lanka’s strategic location and island setting makes it an ideal site for establishing itself as the next international telecommunications exchange hub, with which it can pitch for a premier position as the next knowledge economy hub. According to a recent World Bank report, Sri Lanka has the best telecommunication technology in South Asia and the best tariffs. Being an island, it is well placed to receive all submarine cables. The Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is planning to lay a fibre optic network covering the entire island and connecting all households allowing access to broadband and other high speed communication services.
To this must be added the level of development of human resources of the country, which has one of the most developed free public education and public health systems in South Asia that includes both preventive and curative health care.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
Another reason for Western intervention in Sri Lanka is the refusal of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government to submit to any form of external pressure or conditionality in the conduct of its internal affairs.
In an interview given to N. Ram, journalist attached to the Indian daily, The Hindu, our President had this to say about Western antipathy toward him:
“They don’t like me! They don’t like my independent views! My preference is for my country. Why should I be loyal to any other country? I’m not a Green Card holder, am I?” (a reference to former Army General Sarath Fonseka, rival opposition candidate in the recent Presidential elections, a Green Card holder.)
We reject foreign intervention, in whatever form, in the internal affairs of our country and fiercely defend our right to determine our own economic, social, political and cultural system, and our sovereign right to control our natural wealth and resources for the benefit of our own people.
Our President and his Government have continued to reiterate this determination to find ‘homegrown’ solutions to the economic, political and social challenges that confront our country.
Referring to offers for international assistance to resettle the over 300,000 displaced persons who had been held hostage by the LTTE and to the reconstruction of the North and East, my Government made clear that we were looking for partners not Trojan horses! As at 4th February 2010, i.e., within a period of some 8 months, my Government had resettled more than 72% of the internally displaced persons, while others have been cleared to leave the temporary villages at any time.
In combating terrorism, we make a distinction between solutions to terrorism and solutions to the national question. However, Western countries have – not innocently - sought to create confusion between the two so as to legitimize the actions of the LTTE and to impose the terrorist organization as the sole representative of the Tamil people.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
The economic policies pursued by my Government are guided by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s policy documents One and Two, known as the Mahinda Chintana or Mahinda Vision.
In a shift away from the IMF/World Bank dictated neo-liberal policies of previous right-wing Governments, the Mahinda Chintana exphasizes greater role for the State and priority to the domestic economy – upon which a majority of Sri Lankans depend for their livelihood – as a means to eradicate regional disparities and economic and social inequalities.
We reject privatization of state enterprises, particularly strategic enterprises such as state-owned banks, airports, and electrical utilities. Instead, the State sector is being rebuilt, and ownership and management of State enterprises retained and made more profitable.
We are building a strong national industry and agriculture to reduce imports of products that can be produced locally and to achieve greater self-reliance, food and energy security, and to reduce import dependence. Every effort is being made to harness and further develop the country’s natural wealth and resources, including through skills development, domestic savings, infrastructure development, and the development of traditional know-how in agriculture, medicine, and environmental protection. The previously neglected rural sector is being developed through a comprehensive village development programme covering all 34,500 villages of Sri Lanka and the development of agriculture, industry, livestock and marketing. Public investments prioritise improvement of the rural road network, irrigation, water supply, electricity coverage, guaranteed farm prices, subsidies (including a 96% fertilizer subsidy for paddy farmers), sewerage and sanitation systems, medical facilities, schools, public transport, technical training facilities, self-employment projects, solid waste management for an eco-friendly economy, etc.
Alongside the village development programme, the State-funded Maga Naguma (Village Re-Awakening) programme focuses on connecting regions and provinces with the economic hub through an extensive network of roads, highways, bridges, and railways.
Such programmes combined with the implementation – as a national priority – of the policy strategy Api Wawamu! Rata Hadamu! (Let us cultivate! Let us build the nation!) and the Grow More Food campaign, have permitted the agricultural sector to increase its share of the GDP from 4% to 12% within four years. The fisheries sector has registered a phenomenal growth of 97%.
Less dependence on food imports despite a nearly three-fold increase in population has been a substantial achievement of the country. Today, we are self-sufficient in rice – the staple food of our people!
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
The industrial sector has also experienced a revival. Production of motor cars, yachts and boats - especially fishing boats, inter-island service boats, crew and patrol boats, high value tea, textile and garments, footwear, gem & jewellery, perfumes, furniture etc. have seen new beginnings.
We are implementing a mega infrastructure development programme, among them, expanded road networks throughout the country, a second international airport, 14 domestic airports, five harbours including one of the largest deep water ports in the Indian Ocean - the Hambantota Port, which will be able to berth 33 vessels at any given time, making it the biggest harbour in South Asia. It is expected that at least 20% of the shipping traffic, mainly oil tankers, would call at the Hambantota Port, saving nearly 3 days sailing time.
A massive development programme has also begun in the recently liberated Northern and Eastern provinces with two dedicated and targeted programmes underway – Eastern Reawakening with a budget amounting to US$ 1,7 billion for the period 2007 – 2010; and Accelerated Northern Province Development Programme for US$ 2,6 billion for the period 2010 to 2012. In addition, from 2010 onwards, the Government plans to allocate some US$ 1 billion each year – for 3 years – for the North and East for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Since its independence 62 years ago, the Sri Lankan economy has experienced significant diversification from being a predominantly agricultural economy. Until the 1980s, agricultural exports – tea, rubber and coconut – dominated our export structure. Today, our export structure consists of 78% industrial exports including garments (53%), rubber based products (3.5%), ceramics (1.1%), leather and footwear (4.4%), and machinery and equipment (4.4%). Recent years have also seen new agricultural exports with processed agricultural exports on the increase. About 70% of the export earnings from agricultural exports are domestic value added.
The import structure too has changed significantly with raw materials and capital goods for industries accounting for a larger share of imports than food and other consumer imports.
Food imports declined from 45% of total imports in 1951 to only 10.7% in 2008. During the same period, imports of Sri Lanka’s staple food – rice – declined from being 15% of total imports to less than 1%. Consumer imports declined from over 50% of total imports in 1951 to 18.2% in 2008, and imports of intermediate goods rose to 59.5% in 2008.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
Today, Sri Lanka’s economy is on the threshold of a significant take-off. Upgraded to a “middle income emerging market” status by the IMF in January 2010, Sri Lanka is, according to the US Economist Intelligence Unit, the “second fastest growing economy in Asia,” second only to China, and the “eighth fastest growing economy in the world.”
For decades, our economy underperformed relative to its potential due to terrorism. From 2005 to 2008, during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Presidency, and despite the war and global recession, our average GDP growth was 6% or above, although it slowed down in 2009 to 3,5%. GDP per capita income doubled from US$ 1,062 in 2004 to US$ 2,100 in 2009. Average inflation rate was reduced to 3,4% in 2009, and poverty levels dropped from 25% in 1996 to 15% in 2007.
Government debt to GDP ratio also declined from 105% in 2002 to 84% in 2009 with the country having an impeccable debt repayment record. Our banking and financial sector has been resilient and robust. Not a single bank collapsed during the crisis!
The unemployment rate, which was around 8 to 9% a few years ago has dropped to 5,2% in 2008, slightly increasing to 5,8% in the third quarter of 2009 due to the global recession. This compares with 7,2% in the US and 5,6% in the UK.
Social indicators have also improved. For instance, between 2005 and 2009, average life expectancy increased from 73,41 to 75,14, and our global ranking improved from 96 to 83. Infant mortality rate in 2009 was 19 per 1,000 live births. Electricity coverage which was 75% in 2005 has increased to 87% today. Our target is to achieve 100% within the next two years.
Macro economic fundamentals include low interest rates, moderate inflation and subdued inflation expectations, stable exchange rates, and high foreign exchange reserves, equivalent to 6,2 months of imports.
In order to make further savings, increase farmer income, and the country’s external reserves, Sri Lanka is aiming at achieving self-sufficiency in potatoes, chillies and onions, and rapid growth in sugar and milk production. Plans are also underway to establish 25 new local food industries to increase agriculture exports further.
Sri Lanka targets to achieve an average economic GDP growth of 8% after 2010 and to double its GDP per capita to US$4,000 by 2016. More importantly, our aim is to ensure that growth is spread more evenly.
We shall build upon our new strengths!
Not only has the almost 30-year old conflict ended, but – in the words of our President – Sri Lanka has the potential to develop into a naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge hub, serving as a key link between the East and West and to become Asia’s New Wonder.
Considered to be one of the fastest growing economies and a feeder to rapidly growing China and India, Sri Lanka can become a regional centre and major gateway to India. Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
Recently, for the first time in almost 30 years, Sri Lanka held island wide Presidential elections in a peaceful and united Sri Lanka. The incumbent President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, won a landslide victory obtaining almost 58% of the votes, improving his 2005 election results by 1,8 million new votes.
The vote in favour of Mahinda Rajapaksa has a dual significance:
• First, it was a popular vote – or an anti- elite vote!
Even in Tamil dominated North and East where his right-wing opponent – former Army General Sarath Fonseka – was ahead, Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to increase the number of votes in his favour – compared to his 2005 election results.
• Second, it was an anti-Western vote!
In that sense, the vote in favour of Mahinda Rajapaksa can be said to have both a class character and an anti-imperialist character.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has demonstrated that – contrary to neo-liberal claims – the State has a central role to play in economic and social development. He has also shown that a country can meet its external obligations without default without resorting to privatization or liberalization and without surrendering to IMF/World Bank diktat.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also demonstrated that, contrary to Western claims, it is possible – even for a small country – to defeat terrorism without external interference, without foreign military advisors, without foreign bases. By making that demonstration, he has exposed the true nature of foreign interference, that it has a hidden agenda – not that of fighting terrorism!
A challenge of the forthcoming parliamentary elections due to take place on 8 April, is whether the ruling centre-left Alliance of the President will acquire a two-thirds majority, permitting amendments to the Constitution. Amendments will be required to enable minority communities, including the Tamil community, greater representation in the legislature, and to democratize and develop local structures.
In his political manifesto, the President Mahinda Rajapaksa outlines the following objectives:
a) A new District and National Proportionate System to provide representation to minority ethnic groups
b) Executive Presidency Trusteeship
c) Supremacy to the Village –Jana Sabha
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends!
Our people have always prized their independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity, A common sentiment shared with the newly independent nations and peoples enabled Sri Lanka to play a cardinal role in founding the Non-Aligned Movement. Today, NAM continues to be at the heart of our search for allies, a Movement that we are committed to energising and strengthening!
Sri Lanka has always sought to further South – South cooperation. Today, my country Chairs the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). It has also been endorsed to Chair G-15 this year. In addition, we are an active member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) , the Shanghai Cooperation Dialogue, and ASEAN Regional Forum.
Sri Lanka has free trade agreements with India as well as with Pakistan, and has privileged relations with, among others, Iran, Japan, Russia, and China.
We have a keen interest in the process of regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are eager to learn from experiences of regional organizations such as IBSA Dialogue and ALBA and in horizontal associations of regional integration that offer alternatives to the type of relations imposed upon us by imperialism.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ambition for a “non-aligned, free and progressive foreign policy” must necessarily engage Sri Lanka in Latin America, a region where our natural allies are to be found and whose struggles focus on shared values and aspirations.
We consider it vital that Sri Lanka associates itself with the changes taking place in Latin America and with the architects of those changes.
At a crucial time in the history of my country, where perspectives for peace and justice have been made possible by a political will to restore sovereignty and to defend our country from external intervention, it is imperative that we promote cooperation that is based on solidarity, reciprocity, and mutual respect.
This past year, we have sought to increase our efforts toward strengthening our representation and relations with Latin America. Although, Sri Lanka’s physical representation in the region is presently limited to Cuba and Brazil, our efforts are beginning to bear fruit.
I would like to refer to the invaluable support received last year from ALBA member States at the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Sri Lanka. At that Session – initiated by certain Western powers – the Non-Aligned Movement – under the firm and able leadership of Cuba – succeeded in preventing imminent foreign intervention in Sri Lanka by reaffirming respect for principles of national independence and sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of States.
May I take this opportunity to salute the formidable role played by Cuba’s remarkable Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva at the time, Juan Antonio Palacios, as well as to our very dear friend Prof. Miguel Alfonso Martinez, who was always a tremendous source of inspiration and strength – to me personally since I first met him in Geneva in 1984 – but also to my country, and to the oppressed and exploited peoples around the world, particularly the indigenous peoples.
The meeting between our President Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Raul Castro Ruz during the NAM Summit in Sharm-El Sheikh is a turning point in our relations, as is the historic meeting between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Tripoli, last year.
My country’s efforts to strengthen ties with this region cannot be separated from the political will of our President and his Government to mark the 50th Anniversary of our relations with Cuba with a qualitative leap.
Mr. Chairman! Excellencies! Dear friends !
Our vision for strengthening bilateral relations with Cuba must be seen from this geopolitical perspective, from the perspective of our vision to build an independent and sovereign Sri Lanka, and the need to expand our alliances to include like-minded countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Sri Lanka was the first country in Asia to recognize the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. That was in February 1959! In August of that same year, Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara visited Sri Lanka and signed our first bilateral Agreement – the Trade and Payments Agreement.
Politically, Sri Lanka and Cuba share common views on international cooperation, on the role of developing countries, on South-South cooperation, on the defence of State sovereignty, national independence, territorial integrity, and non-intervention in the internal affairs of States.
We have both established strong ties with influential emerging nations such as China, India, Iran, and Russia. Our close cooperation within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement and our commitment toward that Movement is indisputable.
Greater regional integration and inter-regional cooperation is a common goal and support from Asia for the type of cooperation being promoted by ALBA will be of mutual benefit.
Our countries face considerable challenges! The global economic, social, energetic, food and environmental crises are taking their toll. Cuba continues – for almost 5 decades now – to courageously confront the US imposed political and economic blockade imposed against your country and people. Sri Lanka, in spite of foreign intervention, has succeeded in defeating terrorism and ending a 28 year-old war at considerable human and economic sacrifice.
This past year has seen a multiplication of exchanges between our two countries.
At the political level, the recent visit to Sri Lanka of H. E. Marcos Rodriguez Costa, Deputy Minister of External Relations of Cuba, to commemorate 50 Years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, was warmly greeted by both sides as a tremendous success. Sri Lanka has sent a number of high-level delegations to visit Cuba during the course of this year, including our Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and our Minister of Science and Technology, who is also Chairman of the Sri Lanka – Cuba Friendship Group of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Discussions are ongoing on a bilateral project to identify common allergens in Sri Lanka and the epidemiology of allergic diseases. Recently, Cuba received an official visit from the Secretary-General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and the Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education. My country and its Parliament continue to be vehement in their demand for the liberation of the Five Cuban heroes unjustly imprisoned in the US and for an immediate end to the illegal US blockade against Cuba.
At the economic level, Sri Lanka – for the first time in our history of relations with Cuba – sent a delegation of Sri Lankan enterprises to the 2009 Havana International Trade Fair – led by our Ministry of Foreign Trade. My country also recently decided to purchase Cuba’s biological method to fight the dengue epidemic in Sri Lanka. In April this year, Cuba will receive an expert from Sri Lanka to assist develop its coconut industry.
My country is also involved in a programme of cooperation – with the active involvement of the farming community in Cuba – to restore primary forests and local biodiversity destroyed by the introduction of a plantation economy by our colonizers, by applying a traditional method practised in Sri Lanka – known as Analog Forestry.
At the cultural level, my country – for the first time – participated in the Havana International Book Fair by sending a representative of Sri Lankan literature – invited by the Cuban Ministry of Cultural Affairs - to present his work of poetry published in Cuba.
Mr. Chairman, Excellencies! Dear friends !
From the foregoing, it is clear why Western powers who, having failed to influence the political and economic choices of my country and my people, have resorted to threats and pressure, including the recent decision of the European Union to deprive us of GSP + status. It is also evident why Western interference reached such heights during the last stages of our battle against terrorism and separatism. It will come as no surprise to you to learn that the model upon which certain Western powers proposed to resolve the national question in Sri Lanka was none other than that of Kosovo, a model also promoted by the separatist LTTE!
Mr. Chairman, Excellencies! Dear friends !
My country faces tremendous challenges ahead in building and rebuilding a country destroyed by almost three decades of war and in reconciling a people torn apart. Moreover, we must do so in an unfavorable global economic climate undergoing a systemic crisis.
Having said that, let me conclude on a more positive note! Our experience bears out the saying ‘only hard times reveal our true friends’! It is in the strength of this knowledge and the unity of our people that we shall be facing the challenges ahead.
You, who have heroically resisted – and continue to resist - an unjust economic blockade imposed by the US upon your people and Government, will certainly understand what this means!
Thank you!
