Minister of Labor and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said today that even though his predecessors built regional offices with training centers of Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment in their own constituencies, he has decided to deviate from this practice and provide a training center and a regional office complex of the SLBFE to Jaffna.

The Minister announced this while speaking to journalists based in Jaffna.

The Minister who is in Jaffna to participate in the Glocal Fair 2023, on the 15th and 16th July at Muttraveli Stadium in Jaffna, visited the Jaffna Vocational Training Center to meet the youth who are undergoing vocational training.

The Minister told Journalists that the services provided by the ‘Glocal Fair’ will not be confined to the days it will be held which is coming Saturday and Sunday, but the efforts will be continued.

“I met a large number of youth from Jaffna before meeting you. What they said, when they met me was, that it was the first time they saw a cabinet minister from the south after seeing a cabinet minister from North. They told me that it was the first day they talked to a Minister from the South and took selfies. When I heard those stories and felt that brotherhood, I decided not to just confine the services offered through Glocal Fair only for the coming Saturday and Sunday but to extend such services by establishing an SLBFE regional office and a training center here, instead of having such a facility in my constituency in Galle”.

The Minister recalled that when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in charge of the subject he started a training center in Tangalle and Thalatha Athukorala in Ratnapura and Dilan Perera too in his own constituency.

The Minister stressed that by deviating from such practices and instead of having such a facility in his own constituency in Galle, he had decided to build it in Jaffna.

“But after talking to those young people and feeling their affection, I decided not to have that training center in Galle, where my voters are, but to bring that training center to Jaffna in the North, symbolizing true solidarity and reconciliation” he added.

The Minister went on to say that accordingly, he had requested the District Secretary in Jaffna for a suitable plot of land and the SLBFE Chairman will immediately proceed with the planning with regards to setting up the center after obtaining the necessary approvals.

“We are building this training center in Jaffna for young people in the north to receive training aimed at foreign employment and to introduce them to foreign employment opportunities” he added.

The Minister emphasized that he was not interested in petty politics and party politics, but will bow down to national duty at all times.

“It is because we do not think about narrow party politics that we accepted all these responsibilities when crises engulfed the nation and when it was on fire” he stressed.

The Minister emphasized that to develop this country; all should put aside differences such as color, party, race, caste, religion and should come together.

“We should rise as a developed nation at least by 2048. If we are divided for any reason, we cannot achieve that task. Politicians have always divided us and won votes. From the time Sinhala was made the official language in 1956, with the arson attack on the Jaffna library to the Easter attacks, many say that everything was done for the sake of getting votes”.

He further said, “We are of the mindset that we want to build this country without allowing anyone to divide us again on racial and religious lines. That is why we have come to Jaffna and are implementing these programs. I request the media community in the North to support this program, a program that provides awareness to youth on employment related matters and introduce them new opportunities”. (SLBFE)