Namal Rajapaksa, a lawmaker from the ruling coalition representing the southern Hambantota district where a games city is to be built to host the event, said it would help modernise the impoverished southern region.
The government wants to hold the event in a new city and much infrastructure development is underway in Hambantota, he told a news conference at the end of a four-day visit by the Commonwealth Games Federation Evaluation Commission.
The island deserved to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games having just emerged from a 30-year war which retarded economic growth, Rajapaksa said.
The commission is to vote in November to chose either Australia's Gold Coast or Hambantota in Sri Lanka which are bidding to the host the games.
Asked how he views international political efforts to scuttle Sri Lanka's bid to host the games, given the pressure to probe alleged human rights abuses during the war, Rajapaksa replied:
"It is up to them (Games Federation Evaluation Commission) to play a