-By A Special Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News - 11.Sep.2025, 11.40 PM) For decades, glossy tourist brochures have painted Sri Lanka as a land of paradise — golden beaches, warm hospitality, luxury hotels, and world-class resorts. Yet, behind the postcard images lies a harsher reality: more Sri Lankans live in poverty, surviving on less than five dollars a day. In Colombo, one sees luxury cars and a wealthy elite, but the workers in apparel factories, small farmers, and even many public servants struggle with the lowest wages in South Asia.
The truth is that successive governments since independence ignored this silent majority. Instead of reinvesting in people, leaders borrowed recklessly, enriching themselves while ordinary citizens now face the crushing burden of billions in debt repayments to foreign bondholders. It is little wonder that so many of Sri Lanka’s brightest talents left the island in search of fair wages abroad.
Now, the NPP government is charting a different course. Inspired by how China lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, it is focusing on redistributing wealth, removing red tape, and building an economy that serves the forgotten more people in poverty. The vision is clear: education and training systems that empower rural communities, simplified online procedures for small businesses and exporters, and a digitalized economy that eliminates corruption while ensuring every tax rupee is reinvested in public welfare.
For too long, tax breaks and concessions were handed to corporate giants while the poor were left behind. The NPP promises to end this imbalance by promoting manufacturing, exports, and regional development that extend opportunity beyond Colombo. Adult education and skills training are being prioritized to replace the workforce lost to migration.
Sri Lanka may still be marketed as a tourist paradise, but the NPP wants to ensure that those who live here — the farmers, factory workers, and laborers — can finally share in that prosperity. For the first time in decades, the country may be moving in the right direction.
-By A Special Correspondent
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by (2025-09-11 18:14:16)
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