The International Labour Organization (ILO) is urging Sri Lanka to increase its labour productivity if the economy is to grow at a healthy rate in the future.
Speaking at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2009, ILO Economist Steven Kapsos said the country’s long term development path should focus on higher value added services and higher value added industrial products. Mr. Kapsos also said Sri Lanka must ramp up its low social protection coverage and address gender imbalances in the workforce.
At a technical session on building ICT and English in Sri Lanka, Advisor to the President Sunimal Fernando, said the failure of English in schools is due to the fact that spoken English has never been part of the curriculum or the examination system. “English is taught in schools as a subject and not a skill,” Mr. Fernando said. He added that teaching methodologies must be taken from India and learn from their success in training English speaking due to the need for ICT skilled people. Mr. Fernando also said there is no shortage of English teachers in schools as there are currently 22,000 English teachers for 9,500 schools around the country.
At a technical session on governance and challenges for the public and private sectors, the Deputy Director of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of Malaysia, Dato’ Dr. K. Govindan said Sri Lanka needs to re-brand the country after the end of the war. He said a strategic communications team in all Ministries is required including trained officers at all public counters, especially at the immigration counters. He added that further growth in the country will require strong urban centres.
The focus should be on making Colombo truly international in terms of safety, healthcare, improvements in the quality of living and ease for the private sector. Dr. Govindan said privatization is good if conducted properly as there are certain businesses the government should not be involved in. Addressing the recent Supreme Court judgment on Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) last month, Parliamentarian and former COPE Chairman Wijedasa Rajapakse said the judgment, including that of Lanka Marine Services (LMS) last year, were landmark judgments in stopping future corruption. However, he said eliminating corruption depends on the will of the leader.
Executive Director of Transparency International J.C. Weliamuna said the cases highlighted just how questionable the privatizations were. However, he said he is not in favour of judicial popularism as it will only harm the judiciary. He did say there is a need for a professional and academic review of the judgments.
Mr. Weliamuna also called for impunity for public officials to be removed in order to set an example. During the panel discussion, he spoke on how the former Chief Justice had donated confiscated items to temples when the items actually belong to the state.
Mr. Weliamuna added that there is no investment in any anti-corruption institutions in Sri Lanka such as the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, which does not have a proper investigative team or any financial independence. He also pointed out that naming and shaming those who have engaged in fraudulent or corrupt acts won’t work for people who are shameless.
Past Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Deva Rodrigo, a respondent in the SLIC case, said he does not agree there was a fraud committed and said there was no mention of any fraud in the judgment. Mr. Rodrigo said there is a mention of a ‘serious mistake’ by the former Deputy Secretary to the Treasury and that businessman Harry Jayawardene’s Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (DCSL) crept into the consortium of companies that purchased SLIC. Mr. Rodrigo added that the media has also blown the judgment out of proportion by including parts of the COPE report, giving the impression that it was part of the judgment. |
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