The chief guest at the event was Mr. Basil Rajapakse, Cabinet Minister of Economic Development.
The event was further graced by Mr. S.R. Attigalle, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury and many Heads of Ministries, Members of Parliament as well as the leaders of the other parties.
The seminar was themed, ‘Seminar on Census Findings’, and its main purpose was to launch the book on ‘Key Findings of Census of Population and Housing 2012’ and to provide an insight into the importance of these findings to economic policy makers, the corporate sector as well as the general public.
Over 500 invitees participated in the seminar, representing a cross section of people of Sri Lanka.
In his speech Mr. D. C. A. Gunawardena, Director General of the Department of Census and Statistics highlighted the importance of using census information for policy planning in the country.
“The launch of this publication is a remarkable achievement. We have managed to overcome many challenges and collect accurate and reliable information. We believe that these findings are important to determine the current state of the country as a whole and thereby make national level policies to foster further improvements.
In addition I take this opportunity to thank all the people of Sri Lanka for providing their valuable information to make the census a success”
The census results were presented on six main streams by an eminent panel of experts.
They were Overview of population and housing censuses in Sri Lanka, Population Size, Growth and Distribution in Sri Lanka, Marital Status and Fertility in Sri Lanka, International Migration Patterns and Dynamics in Sri Lanka, Level of Linguistic Literacy and Computer Literacy in Sri Lanka, Findings on Population and Housing Census, Housing Conditions in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Gunawardena further thanked His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka and the Minister of Finance and Planning Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Planning Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, for their fullest corporation.
He also extended his sincere gratitude to the UNFPA for funding the seminar and all the employees for their dedication towards realizing the vision and the mission of the DCS.
The seminar was concluded with an open discussion where the participants were given an opportunity to raise any questions regarding the findings of the census where the panelists promptly responded to clear the grey areas.
The Department of Census and Statistics further announced that the proceedings of the seminar will be available on their website http://www.statistics.gov.lk for public access.
