The Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, thank you for the time to speak on the heads of expenditure of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, and the Ministry of Justice and National Integration.

¶ 02 Listening to the Opposition today, one would think they handed over a well-functioning country and now it is ruined. But we stabilized a ravaged economy last year—exchange rate, interest rates, government revenue and expenditure—achieving macroeconomic stability. Those most supportive were our migrant workers sending remittances, and the tourism sector—from major operators to tuk-tuk drivers and guides. I express gratitude.

¶ 03 This morning our target of two million tourists for the year is on track; a French couple, Raphael and Claire, arrived on UL 504. The Opposition claims arrivals are up but spending is down. Let me clarify. In 2018, per tourist daily spend was USD 181 at LKR 180 per dollar—about LKR 32,500. A recent airport survey sample of 10,000 shows current daily spend around USD 148; at LKR 300 per dollar, that is LKR 44,400—higher in rupees due to depreciation. Globally, patterns have changed. Compare with the region: Vietnam ~USD 120/day; Thailand ~USD 115; Maldives ~USD 250 (a high-end island product); Cambodia ~USD 100. Considering our crisis and currency, USD 148/day is consistent.

¶ 04 We also face capacity constraints. Sri Lanka has only two gates—port and airport. Promotions are not the bottleneck. We had to cancel 30–40 winter charter flight requests weekly because the airport cannot accommodate them. JICA withdrew earlier due to corruption issues; when they returned, the same minister returned to the same portfolio, and JICA left again. Next year we will commence Terminal 2 expansion. By Nov 17 this year, we have reached two million arrivals; with winter flows we could have reached three million if the airport handled 30–40 more flights per day. The constraint is infrastructure, not promotion.

¶ 05 On tourist harassment: unlike in the past, when perpetrators were protected, we now enforce the law. Recent suspects were arrested—one in Thirukkovil, another surrendered to Kandy Tourist Police.

¶ 06 We are not targeting small businesses. The issue on beaches is extortion networks that skim from private buses and control informal operators; some even peddle drugs brought by sea. We are standardizing and investing, e.g., surf school facilities in Weligama, to regularize activity and hand facilities to genuine operators—not to political cronies.

¶ 07 On North and East development: in 2025 we allocated Rs. 55 million; this year increased to Rs. 131 million. A major sports complex is coming up in Jaffna. We are standardizing boat services in Delft Island. With World Bank USD 100 million support, a large share will go to Northern Province tourism.

¶ 08 Regarding the Tourism Fund and the Rs. 500 million mentioned: those funds are for training. By 2030, we will need about 800,000 workers in the sector. With Samurdhi Authority and the TVEC, we launched “Sankara Shramasena” to train youth from low-income families for tourism jobs. The Opposition that opposed Rs. 200 for tea pluckers also opposes funding training for the poor—we will not keep people in poverty for politics. We are implementing large development projects in the Ministry and will steer tourism forward.

¶ 09 Thank you.