Courtesy Ceylon Today

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said an Anti-Corruption Bill will be introduced and the Government is taking steps to include the ‘Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (StAR)’ in this Bill, together with the World Bank and the United Nations.

The strategy of the government should be to guide the private sector in business activities, while being in the background. Government should intervene only in areas such as monitoring functions, public facilities and maintenance of law and order. The private sector should be used as the driving force of the economy.”

He ceremonially commenced the Fourth Session of Ninth Parliament today (7) morning.

Delivering the Government’s Policy Statement, the President acknowledged that there are still unresolved issues related to land in the North.

In the Jaffna District, there are 3300 acres of state land including security camps. The extent of 100 acres that had been taken over for the Palali Camp was recently released. A decision has to be made regarding more land to be released for which discussions are being held with the Army and other parties. Discussions have also been initiated regarding the lands around other security camps,” he said.

Speaking further, the President said the Government is streamlining and expediting the process of tracing missing persons.

The mechanism of the Office on Missing Persons will be strengthened and attention has been focused on the people who have been imprisoned for being involved in terrorist activities. They have been imprisoned for many years without trial, he said, adding that measures are being taken to systematically release these prisoners, he noted.