Today is the second anniversary of the unprecedented huge mandate given by the people of this country to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In the Presidential Elections held on January 26th 2010, he won by over 1.8 million votes with 57.8 percent of the votes cast where nearly 70 percent of 14,088,500 registered votes were polled.
The President was polled 6,015,934 votes to defeat combined Opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka who was polled only 4,173,185 votes representing 40.15%.
As it has been pointed out by the UPFA General Secretary Minister Susil Premjayantha the President’s victory thwarted attempts made by local and foreign elements to destabilize the country and paved the way to accelerate the massive economic development drive.
This people’s mandate has helped to increase Sri Lanka's per capita income to over US $ 2,000, and place Sri Lanka in the mid-income level country status for the first time in the history. Sri Lanka recorded some of the most significant landmarks in terms of economic growth and development after 2010. The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospect Report of June 2011 said that “India and Sri Lanka will lead the South Asian growth path. It said that the “Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in Sri Lanka remains buoyant. GDP growth in 2010 registered eight percent and has been strongly underpinned by the peace dividend following the end of the decades-old conflict.”
Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves have increased to US $ 7 billion, for the first time in its history. Remittances from Sri Lankans employed overseas crossed the US $ 5 billion mark for the first time in 2011. During the year, earnings from tourist arrivals also increased by 44.2 percent to US $ 830 million compared to last year, while tourist arrivals increased by 30.8 percent to 855,975 compared to that of 2010.
During this period the country's economy registered a continuous growth of eight percent and the unemployment declined to five percent.
It was also during this period that the country saw massive development throughout the country including the terrorist held North and East. Among the landmark projects commissioned by the country during this period includes the Hambantota Harbour, Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, the Southern Expressway, the Lotus Pond Arts Performance Theatre and flyovers in many parts of the country.
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