SAARC was a success, the people say: Survey

“The majority believe that hosting this regional summit meeting was beneficial to Sri Lanka, but that it cost too much,” a spokesperson for pioneering business magazine LMD told The Bottom Line yesterday. She was referring to the latest opinion poll commissioned by LMD.
The October issue of the journal reports: “Given that most people in this country were severely inconvenienced, both before and during the SAARC summit in August – and bearing in mind the staggering cost involved – you would expect a majority to say that hosting the conference in Colombo was an especially poor decision on the part of the Government… but that’s not the case, according to TNS Lanka’s latest monthly poll.”
More than 70 per cent of respondents the survey say that “the Government was right to step in when the Maldivians pulled out, pointing out that the summit helped focus international attention on Sri Lanka and improve its image abroad”, LMD notes.
It adds: “They also assert that hosting the regional heads of state will help to change the wrong image that our island-nation is currently burdened with, in addition to garnering more respect for the country. Some hope that by hosting the event, we managed to reflect to the international community a clearer picture of terrorism in Sri Lanka.”
Asked who benefited from the high-profile summit, the President was cited as being the chief beneficiary by participants, followed by ministers, hotels and trade organisations in this country.
As to whether the people feel that Sri Lanka afford to host a summit of this nature, “nearly 60 per cent answered in the negative”, LMD states.
The latest issue of LMD will be available at leading bookstores and supermarkets across the island on 3 October, says LMD’s publisher Media Services.