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Lankan president tells West to sort problems

27 Oct 2011 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken a swipe at advanced economies, saying they urgently need to get their act together because the Asia Pacific region is propping up global stability.

Leaders in advanced economies had done "too little, too late" to address shaky confidence in their financial markets, so they needed to take urgent action or risk derailing global stability, Mr. Rajapaksa told the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth.

He pointed to high unemployment in advanced nations, which had resulted in the first signs of political and social unrest in those societies.

"Such situations, if allowed to escalate unchecked, could give rise to more serious political problems, which would further threaten global economic stability," Mr. Rajapaksa told delegates.

"It is thus imperative that the more advanced nations respond quickly and efficiently to deal with rising inequalities and unemployment levels in their society, without allowing a situation of unacceptable proportions."

Mr. Rajapaksa said he was concerned that confidence, the bedrock of the economic system, was going to slide further.

"If confidence levels decline, economic activity that we take for granted is damaged at the very foundations.

"It is essential that world leaders search for proper responses and act decisively to restore confidence.

"It is... time for advanced economies to respond to the growing crisis and do so quickly... otherwise they will find that the situation will become much worse and perhaps even reach a point of no return."

He also said Sri Lanka, the next host nation for CHOGM, had been successful in maintaining confidence over the past six years "because we have been able to provide a political consistency".

Economic growth in the north and east regions, which had previously been affected by conflict, was growing by 22 percent, he said.

Unemployment had fallen from eight percent to 4.3 percent, inflation had dropped from 28 percent to six percent and debt-to-GDP levels were down from 103 percent to 79 percent.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday raised directly with the Sri Lankan president the issue of human rights abuses during the country's civil war that ended in 2009. (Source: The West Australian News)

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Lankan president tells West to sort problems

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