Sri Lanka will use presidential powers to fix economy: minister

May 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa who crushed a 30-year separatist war in the island and won landslide election last month will use his extensive executive powers to fix the economy, a powerful minister said. "The president used his executive powers in the last three years to finish the war," Basil Rajapaksa minister of economic development said a forum at Sri Lanka's central bank.

"Now he wants to use his powers to economically develop the country and the Central Bank will play a big role in it."

Expectations

Dubbed 'super minister by one newspaper Minister Rajapaksa is president Rajapaksa's brother.

He is widely regarded as being efficient and has masterminded several election victories including a January presidential election and April parliamentary polls which gave the ruling coalition 144 seats.

"We know the people of this country gave the president and his party a great mandate," Rajapaksa said.

"The power given to the president is big, but the people's expectations are also big."

Sri Lanka went for presidential system with centralized executive power in 1978 after a planned socialist economy drove unemployment above 20 percent and brought the economy to its