The Hon. R.M. Jayawardhana

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, we examined in particular the 18 economic centres under our Ministry recently and studied their conditions. We observed that some centres lack even basic facilities. For instance, some centres lack access roads; in some places the access road lies somewhat interior from the main road. Some centres are not openly accessible to the public at large for the business linkages intended. We looked into these shortcomings, including through field visits.

¶ 02 A key problem is that after vegetables and fruits are offloaded outside, sometimes they are exposed to the sun, and at other times to the rain. There are several such issues.

¶ 03 Therefore, we have drawn up plans addressing several aspects to develop these centres. One is to allocate funds to systematically rectify deficiencies at each centre. Accordingly, based on international assistance we have planned to build cold rooms at Thambuththegama, Dambulla and Keppetipola, and to construct canopies to protect from rain. We have also taken several decisions to upgrade external facilities, improve or newly construct access roads where lacking or insufficient. Further, at locations where traders and transporters lack basic amenities, we have discussed and taken decisions at Ministry level to provide such basic facilities. Several such measures are being implemented.