The External Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka, GL Peiris, has urged the public to look at the benefits that hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting would bring, after criticism about the cost of the event.
“Good things cannot happen without expenses. It involves expenditure of resources,
“If you are asking about how much CHOGM is going to cost, you must also ask how much it is going to bring into the country,
“If you look at the recent history of CHOGM summits, Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 and Perth, Western Australia in 2011, how much money was brought into those countries particularly consequent to the Commonwealth business forum. To generate those resources , you must incur expenditure,” Peiris explained.
Taking a negative view of the country’s hosting of the summit would be a “display of disrespect” towards the country, he added.