Colombo, Jan 1
Fresh off his last month's India visit, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Wednesday launched the 'Clean Sri Lanka' national programme, which aims to create a morally and environmentally sustainable nation.
As he inaugurated the 'Clean Sri Lanka' programme at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Dissanayake stated that 2025 marks the start of a new "political culture" in the island nation.
"Our primary developmental goals include eradicating rural poverty, implementing the 'Clean Sri Lanka' initiative, and building a digital economy. The 'Clean Sri Lanka' initiative, launched alongside the New Year, aims to uplift society to greater heights through social, environmental, and ethical revival," he said.
Disanayake stated at the event - attended by members of the Maha Sangha, religious leaders, ministers, ambassadors, athletes, representatives from various sectors, and government officials - that the success of the 'Clean Sri Lanka' initiative depends solely on the active participation of the public.
Sri Lanka, he highlighted, faces "grave challenges" in spite of having been endowed with an exceptionally beautiful and vital environment and strategic geographic location.
"Restoring our environmental system must become a core focus of the 'Clean Sri Lanka' programme. Our nation and its people need a new value system. We have mistakenly elevated incorrect values to positions of importance, embedding them as the fundamental ethos of our society. It is crucial to establish a new framework of values.
The 'Clean Sri Lanka' project, said the Lankan President, goes beyond merely cleaning up the environment.
"It is essential to heal our society and introduce a new system of values and principles. Under the 'Clean Sri Lanka' Initiative, we aim to establish these new values and systems... It aspires to restore the deeply eroded and deteriorated social and environmental fabric of our motherland. We aim to create cleanliness and rejuvenation across all sectors of society," Disanayake stated.
The other two top priorities of the Lankan President include initiating economic reforms and embracing digital transformation.
"The first priority is to rescue our country and its people. Economic reforms are being formulated to ensure that economic benefits reach rural communities, as an economy concentrated in the hands of a small group can never bring stability to society. Such an imbalanced economy fosters instability for the nation and its people. Therefore, achieving economic stability requires extending economic benefits to rural populations," he said.
The second goal, he said, is to embrace digital transformation.
"By establishing a foundation for digitalization, we seek to minimize inefficiency and corruption while enabling citizens to interact seamlessly and effectively with state mechanisms," remarked Dissanayake.