COLOMBO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's newly appointed Minister of Industrial Export, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Prasanna Ranatunga said the new government would look to address major challenges in the coming months to attract foreign direct investments, local media reports said here Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists while assuming duties as the Minister in the newly appointed cabinet, Ranatunga said he was confident of reviving all sectors under his portfolio which suffered in the aftermath of the April 21 terrorist attacks on churches and hotels.
"The tourism industry had the biggest drawback post-Easter Sunday terror attack and we haven't still been able to recover properly. The foreign investors also lost confidence in the economy and our FDIs hit a major tumbling block. However, soon after the 30-year-old civil war, we turned around the tourism and investment sectors and we are confident of reviving it once again," Ranatunga said.
Minister Ranatunga is one of 15 ministers who have been appointed to a paired down interim cabinet ahead of a parliamentary election which is expected to take place next year. Ranatunga is a member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Permuna whose candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidential elections on Nov. 16.
