A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, July 17, 2017
Merkel says must tackle bottlenecks before boosting investment
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a TV interview by ARD public broadcaster in Berlin, Germany July 16, 2017.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected criticism
from her SPD challenger on Sunday that she was neglecting the country's
infrastructure, pointing to already increased investment levels and
capacity bottlenecks in some parts of the economy.
SPD leader Martin Schulz has accused Merkel of making empty promises
about Germany's economic and political future as the former president of
the European Parliament set out his own plans to boost investment and
enhance European unity.
The exchange comes 10 weeks before the federal election in which Merkel
seeks a fourth term and follows a repeated call on Berlin by the
International Monetary Fund to increase investment as a way to boost
imports, support the recovery in other countries and reduce its record
trade surplus.
Asked in a television interview by ARD public broadcaster about her
investment plans and Schulz's criticism, Merkel said: "We currently
cannot spend the money that we have." She pointed to planning and
capacity bottlenecks in the construction industry as well as at the
level of regional authorities.
Germany has earmarked billions of euros in investments for schools,
nurseries, hospitals and housing, but local authorities have so far
spent only a fraction of that windfall due to planning bottlenecks.
Merkel said the federal government had put aside additional money for
more investment in its mid-term budget plans, adding: "We still have a
lot to do in this regard."
Merkel said Germany had to increase investment in high-speed internet
broadband connections. "We say, for example, that we have to use at
least one third of the additional tax revenues for investment. It can
also be more," she said. "But we also must be able to get everything
built on the ground."
Merkel underlined her determination to run for a full four-year term in the Sept. 24 election.
She also said again that she was opposed to the introduction of a cap to
limit the number of refugees that Germany can integrate each year, as
demanded by her Bavarian CSU allies, saying there were other measures to
control migration flows.
Asked about the violence at the G20 summit in Hamburg earlier this
month, Merkel defended the decision to hold the meeting in Germany's
second-biggest city.
She distanced herself from local politicians within her conservative
party who had called for Hamburg's mayor Olaf Scholz, a senior SPD
member, to step down because of the riots.
Merkel said the riots were absolutely unacceptable but it was still
right to have invited G20 leaders to Hamburg. "For this, I have the same
responsibility as Olaf Scholz does - and I'm not dodging," she added.
Turning to Turkey, Merkel said that German lawmakers should be allowed
to visit the Bundeswehr soldiers at a NATO air base in Konya and that
more talks were needed to resolve the dispute.
Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Greg Mahlich