President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said physical development alone is insufficient to build a nation, arguing that sustainable progress must be rooted in a country’s culture, values and historical heritage.
No nation achieves lasting development without maintaining deep-rooted ties to its cultural values and identity, the President said, noting that many countries have grown prosperous by building on their own cultural foundations. Such a foundation is also essential for fostering unity, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among diverse communities, he said.
He made the remarks on Thursday afternoon at a Presidential Secretariat meeting reviewing progress on projects funded under the 2026 Budget for the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, and considering the ministry’s proposals for the 2027 Budget, according to the President’s Media Division.
The review covered the ministry’s three principal sectors — Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs, Cultural Affairs, and National Heritage — running on recurrent allocations of Rs. 9,535.45 million and capital allocations of Rs. 5,401.40 million.
Among the items examined was a Rs. 601 million allocation for infrastructure at rural places of worship, covering alms halls at Buddhist temples, water supply improvements, the development of Daham Pasal serving Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim communities, and the reconstruction of places of worship damaged by Cyclone Ditwah.
The President instructed officials to resolve land-related obstacles holding up an Indian-assisted project to install solar power systems at religious institutions.
Dissanayake ordered that the renovation of the National Art Gallery be completed before the end of the year, pointing to delays caused by substandard construction work and irregularities during implementation. Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Dr Hinduma Sunil Senevi said plans are in place to revive several major projects begun in 2018 and 2019 and subsequently neglected, including the art gallery, the John de Silva Memorial Theatre and the Amaradeva Asapuwa.
The President pressed for faster digitisation of the National Museum and the Department of National Archives, and said museums should become interactive learning spaces using modern technology rather than buildings that simply display artefacts.
He also raised what he called longstanding weaknesses and irregularities in the management of properties held by the Department of the Public Trustee, instructing officials to draft legislative amendments to prevent the misuse of public assets, review unprofitable or ineffective trusts and establish a new legal framework for their governance.
Noting that several institutions under the ministry perform overlapping functions, Dissanayake asked officials to prepare proposals to consolidate them and eliminate duplication.
