Addressing the anniversary President Rajapaksa stated that he will never give any chance to terrorism in Sri Lanka.
Ending the civil war is great credit that the current Sri Lankan government earned for itself, which provides a peaceful environment for economic development and tourism.
Sri Lanka's Central Bank said in its latest report that the stage is set for a high growth trajectory over the next few years, starting with the economy rebounding this year, expected at 7.5 percent compared with last year's 6.4 percent.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was present at the launch of the report called for "positivism" from all if Sri Lanka was to leapfrog to greater socioeconomic prosperity amidst serious global and local challenges.
"People who are prone to criticize will most likely harp on the fact that GDP growth in 2012 has come down to 6.4 percent from 8 percent in the previous year. However they won't take into consideration the serious challenges within which growth was achieved," Rajapaksa said.
The current Sri Lanka also has witnessed an increasing number of tourists coming to the country since the end of the war.
Tourist arrivals exceeded 1 million in a calendar year for the first time in 2012, earning Sri Lanka more than US$1 billion.
The Sri Lankan government has set a target of 1.25 million tourists for 2013 as part of a strategy to attract 2.5 million tourists by 2016.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted "broadly stable" growth for Sri Lanka in the next two years with gross domestic product (GDP) for 2013 pinned at 6.3 percent, the organization said in its latest report.
Releasing the Asia Pacific Region's Economic Outlook, the IMF also projected the Sri Lankan economy to grow by 6.7 percent in 2014.
The estimate of 6.3 percent for 2013 is far below the Sri Lankan Central Bank's forecast of 7.5 percent.
Latest forecast also puts Sri Lanka's growth above the average of South Asia, the GDP of which is estimated to grow by 5.7 percent in 2013 and 6.3 percent next year.
The Saturday celebration, however, as previous ones, continued to be marred by allegations of human rights abuses and failure to hold accountable those accused of committing war crimes.
Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa however rejected most allegations on human rights, saying there are attempts being made by some pro-Tamil Tiger groups to split the country. 5/18/2013
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