Sri Lanka President calls for donor communityto fulfill their obligations in assisting developing countries

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa today called for a genuine commitment to fulfil1 donor obligations to assist developing countries as the recent global economic and financial crisis has severely reduced the access to external resources and private capital flows for them.


Addressing the Millennium Goals Debate at the United Nations today in New York, President Rajapaksa said unfortunately, the trend for more restrictions and protectionist measures in trade, debt relief, and access to technology is posing a challenge to development. It is important for development assistance from external sources to continue to encourage for the sake of sustainability, he said.
Speaking of Sri Lanka, the President said Sri Lanka has already attained or is on track to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), initiated nine years ago, despite formidable odds, including the nearly three-decade long terrorist war and a devastating tsunami in December 2004.
Sri Lanka was able to make such a progress in achieving the MDGs since the country has incorporated key performance indicators of MDGs in its national budget policies.
President Rajapaksa noted that through the "Mahinda Chinthana - A vision for future", Sri Lanka embarked upon a 10 year pro-poor, and pro-development oriented framework, to further consolidate and accelerate socio-economic progress through the measures such as free healthcare and access to education that were already part of the country's overall policy since Independence.
The President spoke of the importance of a building a society that metes out quality treatment for women and children through a economic and social policy guided by the Buddhist tradition.
He highlighted that Sri Lanka has achieved 99 percent in gender parity in primary education, and in secondary and tertiary education, the ratio of girls to boys exceeds one hundred percent.
Now the challenge is to further enhance the quality of our education to empower and prepare young people for productive employment, he stressed.
In the health sector, Sri Lanka has seen a drop in infant and under-five mortality rates from a rate of 32 per thousand births in 1990 to 11.3 per thousand in 2009.
While focusing on countering tropical epidemics such as malaria and other vector borne diseases, Sri Lanka is now paying adequate attention to forms of non communicable diseases that pose a serious challenge, the President said.
He urged the access to medicines at reasonable costs and more predictable financial and technical assistance to develop local capacities, to improve conditions for patients.
President's Full Statement