Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, emphasised yesterday that a future SJB government will place a high priority on empowering the estate sector.
“Sajith promises to empower the real estate sector as he signs memorandums of understanding with multiple upcountry parties.”
After signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with multiple political parties that represented the estate community, Premadasa made this statement. Leaders of the Democratic People’s Front (DPF) and National Union of Workers (NUW), Palani Thigambaram and M. Udayakumar, the SJB MP, were present at the event.The goals of the estate sector community are outlined in this document, which has 48 clauses and seven chapters. Its goal is to become completely integrated into Sri Lanka’s political, administrative, economic, and social fabric. Regarding the allocation of ministerial portfolios within an SJB administration, there is no consensus, according to Premadasa.Within 48 hours of his election, Premadasa further promised to form a presidential task force aimed at improving the real estate sector community. The leader of the opposition further pledged that workers in the estate sector would become tea smallholders under his leadership.
Ganesan stated during the event that the community in the estate sector has been marginalised for 200 years. According to him, the agreement with the front-runner in the upcoming election is a win in and of itself.
In a meeting with coconut growers earlier in the day, Premadasa promised to present a national policy for the coconut sector. The growers showed him a framework of policies they had created, and Premadasa pledged to form a presidential task force to unite all the institutions associated with coconut farming.”We need to raise this to at least 2.5 billion dollars, but right now we only make about 740 million dollars from exporting coconut products,” he said.Premadasa also mentioned that the nation aims to increase coconut production to 4.5 billion, from its current three billion annual production.
