Hon’ble Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water & Sanitation, Government of India, paid an official visit to Sri Lanka from 11-13 July 2012 on an invitation extended by Hon'ble Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs, Government of Sri Lanka and the Chairman, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS). 

During the visit, Hon’ble Minister Jairam Ramesh called on H.E. the President of Sri Lanka and had meetings with Hon'ble Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs and Hon'ble Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development.

Hon'ble Jairam Ramesh delivered the keynote address at a Joint Seminar on Poverty Alleviation organized by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS), Colombo, and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, on 12 July 2012.

In his welcome address, Prof G.L.Peiris, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka underlined the need for action towards poverty alleviation and drew an analogy between “Divi Neguma”  programme of Sri Lanka and the  Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) of India which provides mandatory 100 days of rural employment. He highlighted that the Seminar would assist in comparative assessment of strategies adopted by the two countries for poverty alleviation.

In his keynote address, Hon'ble Jairam Ramesh highlighted the lessons drawn from India’s efforts in poverty alleviation through major flagship programmes and underlined the importance of sustained economic growth; criticality of participation of elected local institutions & women’s self help groups; infrastructure development namely rural roads and drinking water and sanitation and social security nets such as MNREGA as essential elements for the success of poverty alleviation programmes/policies. He also highlighted that MNREGA was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world with wage payments amounting to approximately 60 billion USD paid to the beneficiaries directly. He mentioned that 20 billion USD was being allocated in the current fiscal year for rural development in India. He also underlined the importance of a legal rights based approach to development and highlighted the important role being played by the Right to Information Act in ensuring transparency and good governance.

Hon'ble Minister Jairam Ramesh and Hon'ble Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris also witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, and the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) to promote academic cooperation in the areas of bilateral and regional economic cooperation and international economic and development issues.

RIS, an autonomous think-tank under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, specialises in policy research on international economic issues and development cooperation. LKIIRSS under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of Sri Lanka, is a multi-disciplinary research forum dedicated to analysing Sri Lanka's strategic interests in the realm of international relations, within the contemporary domestic and global contexts. The MoU signed envisages strengthening of academic cooperation between the two institutes through collaborative research projects, capacity building programmes, joint conferences/seminars, exchange of research faculty, knowledge dissemination through joint publications and exchange of research publications.

Hon'ble Minister Jairam Ramesh also delivered an address titled “Changing Role of India in South Asia” at the Bandaranaike Institute for International Studies (BCIS) in a session chaired by Hon. Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation. In this well received address, attended by intellectuals, politicians, students, defence personnel and members of the public, Hon'ble Jairam Ramesh highlighted the “look East policy” adopted by India in the late 90s and India’s increasing engagement with SAARC member states, ASEAN member states, Central Asian countries, East Asian countries & South-West Asian countries.

Referring in particular to neighbouring countries, Hon’ble Minister highlighted that India being a large country in the region had decided to adopt unilateral concessions to make relationships stronger and not insist on reciprocity. He advocated India’s desire that the whole region should grow with India and highlighted the need for a larger role for cross-investments in the region. He also called for identification of niche areas where countries could have sub-regional or regional cooperation in sectors such as energy and water resource management. He cautioned that the successful management of economic relationships would require sensitivity to legitimate security interests of the parties involved.

He also visited Kelaniya Temple before flying back to India on 13th July 2012.

The visit was part of the regular high-level exchange of visits between India and Sri Lanka, and was held in a warm, cordial and friendly atmosphere, contributing to further widening and deepening the dynamic and multi-faceted relationship between India and Sri Lanka.

Colombo
13 July 2012