The Sri Lankan government wants foreign donors and investors to invest now instead of waiting for permanent peace and is working on a Marshall-type recovery plan for the country.

“We would like to tell investors that a dollar invested today is worth five dollars tomorrow”, said Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda, one of the main drivers of the peace process on the government side along with Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris.

The Marshall Plan, initiated by US Secretary of State George C. Marshall in 1947, was a major effort by the US to reduce the hunger, homelessness, sickness, unemployment, and political restlessness of the 270 million people in sixteen nations in West Europe.  The plan costing the US more than $11 billion helped strengthen the economic superstructure of Western Europe and secured a Nobel Prize for Marshall in 1953.

“In the next few months we are putting together a kind of Marshall Plan for development not only in the north and the east – but the entire country”, said Moragoda.

He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was keen to show the people the benefits of peace now instead of waiting till a permanent peace solution evolves.

“Last week after a trip to Jaffna, I conveyed to donors what the people were saying… Ministers come and go but nothing else happens… they say.  There is unemployment that needs to tackled, there is development that has to be done”, he said, saying that the government plans to urge the international community to invest now instead of waiting for the war to end.

Other government sources said that Wickremesinghe’s address to the UN General Assembly on September 18 ( see connected story on this page) is expected to be on similar lines.

Moragoda said the ADB, World Bank and UN agencies were preparing a needs-assessment aimed at formulating a national reconstruction strategy for Sri Lanka.

Separately the government is looking for high profile personalities like US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to champion Sri Lanka’s case abroad.  “We are looking at high level supporters in Britain and Europe to push our case for aid.  We cannot afford development from our meagre resources.  We need foreign donor aid”.

“The message to the international community is – we need to be developing now and cannot wait till peace dawns”, he said.

While a lot of multinationals have shown interest in investing in Sri Lanka after a ceasefire came into effect in December, many are unlikely to make a move until they are certain the government and the rebels clinch a deal through peace talks.

Just before the July 1983 bloody attacks on the Tamils, among companies and banks planning to invest in Sri Lanka were the Bank of Tokyo, Motorola, Sony, Sanyo and Matsushita Corp, according to Ronnie de Mel, former Finance Minister and Architect of the country’s 1977 economic reforms.