"I will create a safe country for you to live in" : Gotabaya R.

COLOMBO (News 1st):- Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Gotabaya Rajapaksa continued on his campaign trail today (October 20). He was firstly warmly welcomed at a rally organized in the Weligama town. Addressing the people gathered at the event, he said;

"Information technology is a good profession that the youth in our country can find employment in. We can easily train our youth for employment. When we held discussions with companies in the field of information technology, we know that the foreign revenue that comes into our country in the IT field is about US$ 1 billion. But we can easily increase this to about US$ 3 to 5 billion. But the problem that they had was the lack of skilled employees. We can train them in a short time span. We should establish technical colleges in all villages. We must draw examples from foreign countries. These are practical things. We take decisions without any fear."

Further commenting on the tourism sector of the country, he says;

"How much of foreign revenue can we earn through the tourist sector? How many jobs can we create? One of the most important aspects in this area is security. If we have terrorism in the country, if we have underworld gangs that take ransom from businessmen and if we have drug smugglers in our country, how can we move forward from here? We defeated terrorism, we controlled the underworld and drug smugglers. I will assure you that we will continue to do this when we govern the country in the future. There are no investors, there is no security and there is no stability in the country. When I was coming here today I met with the residents of Denipitiya. They were crying and asking me to give them a safe country to live in. We can only take this country to foreign tourists through the state sector. It is the small and medium scale businessmen who improve the economy of the country. If we continue to impose more taxes on them they will not invest."

Gotabaya Rajapaksa also attended a rally held in Akuressa. A group of UNP party members pledged their support to Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the rally. Speaking to the people who were gathered at Akuressa he said;

"We will implement the security plan that was in operation in the past. We will restructure the intelligence service and provide these officers with legal protection. I would like to assure you that we will create a safe country for you to live in. When Mahinda Rajapaksa gave me the responsibility of holding office of the Secretary of Defence I ended terrorism in the country. When I was given the responsibility as the secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development I fulfilled my duties 100%. It is because I fulfilled these duties that you have faith in me. I will not let that trust placed in me be destroyed. We met with professionals in various fields in the country and assessed the problems in the country. We formulated policies to address these issues. We know that the center of the economy of the world is in Asia. Look at India, China, Singapore, and Malaysia many of these countries have developed today centered around their intelligence. We have good human resources. We must stop importing items from overseas. It is only then can we sell our homegrown food items like pepper and other plants. We have to develop these to uplift our local farmers. Our economic plan is centered around the people of the country. If there is a section of the society that is living in poverty, you cannot say that the country is flourishing. There are many job opportunities in the government that does not need any special skills."

Gotabaya Rajapaksa then visited the Morawaka town. He was warmly welcomed by the people gathered there amidst heavy showers in the area.