Sri Lanka is capable of dealing with any foreign pressure - President

Sri Lanka is fully capable with dealing with any pressures that come from Geneva, New York or Washington, country's President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today referring to the current challenges the country is facing.

Addressing a meeting of public officials, heads of state corporations, provincial and local government political leaders, held at Temple Trees today to promote the "Rata Ekata" (Country Together) awareness program on the challenges before the country, the President said the public administration should be aware of the challenges that have taken place in society.

Public officials need to be aware of the new expectations of the people in an era of peace, and learn to be responsible to the public in all their actions, the President urged.

Drawing attention to the failures of public officials to respond to possible erroneous media reports about ministries and state departments, to prepare annual reports and to pay attention to observations and comments of Auditor General, the President said such situations lead to the general impression that Sri Lanka is a failed state.

"It is the overriding responsibility of the public administration to prevent such impressions by ensuring bribery, corruption and violation of legal procedures and tender procedures are not permitted in any aspect of the public administration," the President stressed.

President Rajapaksa said despite the pressing economic needs of the government, it spends nearly 130 billion rupees on the public service to improve the quality of service to the people and public servants should remember that.

He wanted the public administration to notice the increased expectations among the people in the country due to the rise in per capita income to 2,600 US Dollars.

President Rajapaksa emphasized the need to curb wastage and mismanagement and look into the actual necessity of importing products that could be produced locally.

He pointed out that there are many research institutes and a large number of experts who could change the mindset of the people to convince them to use local products and likewise to encourage the private sector to look for new opportunities.

"There must be a new mindset that will ready to drink fresh milk produced in the country and not to look for powdered milk said to strengthen bones," the President said.

Ministers, parliamentarians, Secretaries to the Ministries and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and a large number of senior state officials attended the meeting.