COLOMBO, March 12 -- Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapakse on Thursday criticized the government's decision to halt certain development projects started under his administration.

Speaking to journalists in the capital Colombo, Rajapakse said that the sudden decision to suspend the projects would lead to a high unemployment rate.

Rajapakse made the comments especially referring to the government's recent decision to suspend a Chinese funded port city project in the capital Colombo which had been launched under the previous government.

He added that projects such as the Colombo Port City could not be built for another 100 to 200 years and that the country's development would backward for 200 years if the projects were halted now.

"Halting of development projects means that the Sri Lankan workers and engineers working on them will lose their jobs and thereby the cash flowing to villagers has stopped," he said.