Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

Hon. Ravi Karunanayake highlighted the economic vulnerability stemming from Sri Lanka's dependence on imports (approximately 65% of needs), warning that rupee depreciation significantly raises the national cost structure and that each 1% interest rate increase adds roughly LKR 178 billion in costs. He called for Sri Lanka to pursue its own economic self-assessment and build competitiveness and investment, rather than relying solely on IMF prescriptions. Concluding his remarks, he urged wise and restrained leadership in conflict resolution, noting that escalation has no ceiling, and expressed the broader aspiration of improving living standards for Sri Lankans.

Hon. Ravi Karunanayake argued that Sri Lanka must prioritise long-term national economic development over short-term economic management, advocating for high-growth strategies modelled on Southeast Asian economies. He proposed deeper economic integration with India — drawing an analogy to Hong Kong's relationship with China — suggesting that capturing even 3% of the Indian market could drive Sri Lankan growth of 10–12%. He criticised the Central Bank's monetary policy stance, arguing that raising interest rates to control inflation suppresses economic activity, and called instead for policies that empower SMEs, youth entrepreneurship, and women's economic participation domestically. He also urged a focus on strengthening the capital account to attract investment inflows, which he argued would strengthen the rupee and reduce the cost of living.

Hon. Ravi Karunanayake spoke in support of amendments to the Foreign Exchange Act of 2017, welcoming the increase in the outward investment limit from USD 200,000 to USD 500,000, but cautioning that due to inflation this represents limited real liberalisation and calling for further, prudent relaxation to enable Sri Lankan firms to invest abroad. He raised concerns about the quality of foreign reserves, arguing that the reported USD 6.5 billion includes volatile short-term "hot money" rather than durable holdings, and urged the Central Bank to broaden its focus beyond exchange rates and interest rates to encompass growth, employment, and foreign exchange generation. On energy, he advocated for accelerated investment in renewables and Battery Energy Storage Systems to reduce foreign exchange expenditure on fuel imports, particularly in light of global supply disruptions affecting oil and LNG prices. He also called on the government to seize the current opportunity to attract FDI through institutions such as the BOI and Colombo Port City, engage the IMF to facilitate tax incentives for investors, and address upcoming debt repayment obligations of USD 3.5–6.5 billion due by April 2028 through revenue generation and investment attraction rather than debt reprofiling alone.

The speech provided contains insufficient content to produce a meaningful summary. The single sentence — "Then that would be raising it outside of Parliament" — appears to be a brief interjection or response within a broader exchange, without enough context to identify a key argument, proposal, or policy reference.

The speech as provided contains insufficient content to produce a meaningful summary. The text only includes the statement *"This cannot be raised anywhere else but in Parliament,"* which appears to be a procedural remark asserting the primacy of Parliament as the appropriate forum for a particular matter, but no further detail about the subject being raised is included in the provided text.

I'm sorry, but the speech provided is too brief to generate a meaningful 2–4 sentence summary. The text contains only a single procedural statement — the member rising on a point of order — with no substantive argument, proposal, or policy content recorded. If you have the full text of the speech or intervention, please provide it for a complete summary.

The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake made a procedural suggestion regarding the management of question time, proposing that members be allocated two to five minutes each to ask their questions, with the remaining time then being given over to the Government for responses.

Hon. Ravi Karunanayake raised a point of order regarding the allocation of parliamentary time during Oral Answers, noting a disparity whereby 35 minutes were spent on five Opposition questions compared to 45 minutes on four Government questions. He questioned whether this distribution was fair and equitable.

## Summary The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake concluded his remarks by calling on the relevant authorities to address existing issues and provide solutions, without specifying particular policy areas in this closing statement. The speech ends with a general appeal for action on current concerns.

It looks like the speech content was not included in your message — only a fragment ("Grant me two more minutes—") was provided. Could you please share the full text of the speech so I can provide an accurate summary?