The Hon. (Prof.) Anil Jayantha

¶ 01 I will conclude in a minute, Hon. Chairman.

¶ 02 In planning our forward actions, our objective is to safeguard the dignity and value of labour, recognize its diversity, and protect its democratic rights, while integrating workers into the economic process. We intend to link this with other Ministries. Here, there are two aspects: providing employment and generating employment. Our aim is to generate employment so that our people can readily earn incomes, and to accelerate our implementation of ILO conventions to which we are already signatory. We also intend to move toward ratifying additional conventions related to workplace safety and protection and to set relevant parameters.

¶ 03 I must also say a few words about the Employees’ Provident Fund and the Employees’ Trust Fund associated with our Ministry. These are large funds. According to available information, together they hold assets of around four trillion rupees. The EPF holds a significant asset base. Compared to Government revenue, a similar magnitude of assets rests in these funds. These are the workers’ monies—their wealth—the fruit of their life’s labour. We must invest them more productively to yield better returns so that, upon retirement, workers can live more securely.

¶ 04 Currently, we face several issues in data planning and management relating to the EPF and ETF. The Central Bank undertakes the investment function of the EPF, while our Ministry handles administration. Going forward, we aim to strengthen this inter-relationship so that the funds are utilized more productively with higher returns. We have prepared a plan and are working on it. Our Ministry’s district-level offices are already active, and our officials are engaged in this task. We are exploring how to move these services to a digital platform, to provide services online to the public. Alongside the work under the Ministry of Digital Economy, we aim to streamline and properly manage EPF and ETF administration and improve the efficiency of the Department of Labour through digitization.

¶ 05 As I said earlier, we expect to give Sri Lanka a new orientation, building new production relations underpinned by industrial peace, and to develop the Labour Ministry into an institution working on that basis. We are ready for this. I thank our Ministry Secretary, Mr. Piyathissa Senarathna, and all officials for their support in providing information and facilitating this work during this debate. I also thank the Hon. Leader of the House, and all Government and Opposition Members who participated in today’s debate, for the opportunity to speak.