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President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday requested the Sri Lankan business community in Thailand to invest in tourism and other industries in Sri Lanka.

Our objectives, our responsibilities and our targets are to build a country which your children can be proud of saying `This is the motherland of our parents`. To achieve this objective, plans and programmes are being implemented, he told Sri Lankans living in Thailand.

I request the business community in Thailand to go to Sri Lanka and make investments in tourism and other industries making use of the opportunities which are open to you, the President said.

It is a pleasure for me to meet with you all who are employed or engaged in business activities in Thailand. Your contribution is an enormous strength to the country`s economy. The country has been united after eradicating the 30 - year terrorism and a society in which all the people belonging to various ethnic groups can live in peace and harmony has been built, President Rajapaksa said.

Those who were scared to go to the North and East now go there without fear or danger and those in the North and East now come to the South as they wish without fear of danger. After creating peace, the challenge before us was to resettle nearly 300,000 displaced persons, he said.

The earliest challenge after creating peace was to demine and clear the affected areas. Those areas have since been cleared after demining. Displaced persons have been resettled and facilities have been provided. More than 95 percent have already been resettled and only about 5,000 persons are yet to be resettled, he told the gathering.

The President said everything destroyed, not only hydro electricity projects but everything from bridges, culverts, roads and the rail road up to Kankesanthurai have been renovated.

Sri Lanka maintains a rate of development of eight percent. This development rate had been maintained throughout the past three years. Such a development had not been achieved in the past. The development rate of 22 percent in the North explains the amount of work done for that part of the country, he said.

We live in a society in which our march forward for development is obstructed by distorted information to the international community by certain parties. Eight websites are controlled by a single organisation.

False information is taken to the international community slinging mud on the country. Sri Lankans who live abroad have to rely on such websites. These websites attempt to paint a wrong picture about Sri Lanka, the President said.

You live not far away from Sri Lanka. I am pleased about some of you who come to Sri Lanka and tour the country to gain experiences and make others informed of such experiences.

We also should love our motherland which ever social group to which we belong. The government of Sri Lanka is prepared to accomplish its duties wherever in the world you live, he said.

When you come back to your motherland after a lapse of some years you would realise the amount of development work carried out. When you observe the amount of development work done, you would realise the amount of harm caused to the country due to the 30-year long war.

I hope that you all would cooperate in the task of developing the motherland. There are occasions where rule and regulations stand in the way of development. The government has taken steps to relax such rules and regulations.

I believe that this would enable the business community to carry out business and industries based in Sri Lanka, the President said.

I request you all to render any possible service for the development of the motherland and to build a prosperous country for the future generation.

I also request you not to believe false and distorted views disseminated by certain parties but to ascertain the actual situation by visiting the motherland. I remind you again that everything necessary will be done to build a country of which we can be proud and I wish you a bright future, he said.