Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-11-22

Establishment of a National Border Management Committee

- Controlling the Borders of a country is of paramount importance for the National Security of that country and reflects the safeguards on sovereignty of a country. The number of people traveling across the Sri Lankan border and the amount of goods exchanged across are continuously on the rise and as such, it is expected that a 10 million of people and over 200 million kg. of goods will move across the border of Sri Lanka in 2020. Therefore, the proper management of such activities carried out across the border is really important for the maintenance of national security, social order and economic prosperity of the country. Therefore, the proposal made by H.E. the President, Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Defence, to establish a 'National Border Management Committee' comprising of Senior Government Officials / Policy Makers to perform as the Central State Agency in the assessment of risks, priorities and targets, focusing on all facets of Border Management of Sri Lanka, which is presently carried out by several agencies, was approved by the Cabinet.