Aug 31 (NIA) – Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena is to launch a macro programme in order to prioritize alleviating poverty from the island nation, Cabinet Spokesperson, Rajitha Senaratne told reporters here on Wednesday.
“The government has paid its attention on alleviating poverty according to the pledge given in Presidential Election 2015 and according to the UN sustainable development goals,” Senaratne said.
He added that the government had also recognised that economic development should consider social security, minimizing income differences, marginalized communities due to various reasons and development diversities in provincial and district levels.
Accordingly, the proposal made by President Maithripala Sirisena, to declare the year 2017 as the ‘Year of Alleviating Poverty’ by recognizing the need of a macro programme and giving priority to a collective approach and to supervise the programme by a Committee comprised of relevant ministers and partners and headed by the President and the Prime Minister, was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
The World Bank, in a report last year stated over 23 percent of Sri Lanka’s population is living below the poverty line.
A comparison of regional countries showed that the poverty rate in Pakistan and Maldives was about 50 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively. The poverty rate in India and Bangladesh was higher than Sri Lanka with 59.2 percent and 76.5 percent.
