"MCC will not be signed during the present government" - State Minister Shehan Semasinghe

COLOMBO (News 1st):- The MCC Compact was discussed in the political arena. State Minister of Irrigation and Rural Development, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said: "We have not taken a final decision on signing the MCC Compact. There are various views being expressed within the Government as well as in the country. We would like to say, taking all that into consideration, that we will make a decision for the betterment of the country." Meanwhile, State Minister Shehan Semasinghe said: "This agreement will not be signed in any way during the present government. Our views will not change in any way. But we are ready to review any agreement. Therefore we will oppose if it is an agreement that is disadvantageous to our country and brings advantages to the other parties. We will oppose if this agreement gives ownership of 18% of our land to another country. All the factors that we oppose have been included in this agreement. We who functioned as the Joint Opposition are not in any way, confused about the MCC Compact." State Minister for Economic & Policy Development, W. D. J. Seneviratne said: "We will not approve of the harmful and the unnecessary conditions that are presented in the MCC Compact. The reason why we criticized this during the run-up to the election, was because conditions which were harmful to our country were present in this agreement. We saw Mangala Samaraweera was in a haste to include this. We did not agree to it. And I saw that the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka met with the President and discussed this. It has been said at that discussion that there is no hurry to sign this and we would consider this further more and come to a decision." Meanwhile, the former Minister of Finance, Mangala Samaraweera also speaking about the matter said: "It was said during the Election that the MCC Compact is an agreement that would divide Sri Lanka and that Mangala Samaraweera is a traitor. What is happening now? Gammanpila spoke about a corridor that would divide the country. Now he says that it is 70% good. Why didn't he say that back then?"