The Hon. (Dr.) Anil Jayantha

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, we must understand that the national minimum wage cannot amend the wage-setting under the Wages Boards regime. Whether or not the Opposition says it, we are continuing the discussions. We discussed this over the past months and will do so next month as well. We are taking it forward. We do not claim these wages are at a living standard; however, we have stabilized the economy we inherited, which was in collapse. The Opposition’s responsibility should be to support the next steps—attracting investment, building employer-worker cooperation—instead of undermining investor confidence and creating uncertainty. Internationally and domestically, stability is being recognized. To move to the next step, we must raise production. We will continue discussions across sectors.