The Hon. Attorney-at-Law Chamindranee Kiriella

¶ 01 I request you to make that change because, like I said before, for 70 years, we have seen subsequent governments changing their foreign policy based on their political ideology. But now, you have come to make a change in our country. So, I would humbly request you to consider having a long-term Foreign Policy, maybe one which spans 10 to 15 years and which does not change based on the political ideologies of subsequent governments. If you look at the benefits of having such a long-term foreign policy, developing countries could avoid short-sighted policies which may not benefit them. Also, many of the challenges faced by developing countries such as climate change, poverty and inequality are complex and require long-term coordinated efforts. Therefore, again, I would request the Hon. Minister to consider having a long-term Foreign Policy.

¶ 02 Another topic I would like to touch upon is commercial diplomacy, which is an integral part of the foreign policy of a country. I know that in the Foreign Ministry, we have an Economic Affairs Division, but we need to be more proactive because if you look at a lot of the developed countries, we see that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is also the Minister of Trade. For example, in New Zealand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also handles the Ministry of Trade Affairs mainly because there is a benefit when you branch them together. For instance, through commercial diplomacy, you could bring in a lot of investments to the country. So, I would request the Hon. Minister to relook at it and to introduce a system, maybe, of performance-based incentives to the staff in those divisions so that more investments could be brought into the country.

¶ 03 I would also like to briefly touch upon depoliticizing the Foreign Service. We know that the NPP, throughout their campaign, mainly talked about not having any political appointments made to the Foreign Service. We expected that with the whole Clean Sri Lanka campaign, steps would be taken to clean the Foreign Service also. However, there are indications emerging that political appointments to the Foreign Service are continuing today as well. So, I would request the Hon. Minister, who is here today in the Chamber, to relook at it because that is not what was mandated.

¶ 04 Also, if I refer very briefly to foreign employment, as we know, there is a large number of female domestic workers who bring in a lot of revenue to our country working in the Middle East and some of them have worked overseas for decades. But, when they come back, they find that most of the money they have sent has been either squandered by their husbands or used up by their families. So, when they come back even after working overseas for 20, 30 years, they have to start earning from scratch. Therefore, I would like to propose today to introduce a pension scheme for them. I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism could work together with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and see if these women could be given a pension so that when they come back after a long service in the Middle East, they could have some pension. Therefore, introduce a system through which a deduction could be made from their monthly salary so that they could use it when they come back to Sri Lanka to retire. I hope the Hon. Minister would look at this suggestion favourably.

¶ 05 Sir, I would like to thank you again for giving me time. And, Hon. Minister, I wish you all the best in your functions at the Ministry and in all your future endeavours! Thank you.