Sri Lanka lacks skilled workforce, says NCCSL President
Shortage of skills is a major bottleneck that will probably hamper growth of the country in the years to come. If Sri Lanka is to enter the efficiency driven phase of economic development, it needs new skills with the majority of workforce being relativey unskilled, said Sunil.G. Wijesinha, President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL). He noted, “Today Sri Lanka needs three things very urgently and all three are skills.”
Mr. Wijesinha made this statement at the 55th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the chamber held in Colombo last week. He said the country was at an important threshold and it needed to make the right decisions to catch up with other nations. Many chambers and corporates agree that the country is largely on the right track where the economy is concerned.
“Export promotion is essential and the exporters need to be competitive and find new markets. Price competitiveness is an intermediate measure but still important. Cheap labour and low cost inputs which have made some industries successful are no longer available and industrialists should wake up to these realities. No purpose will be served lamenting on the high cost of labour, high cost of energy and so on. The country needs to move ahead taking lessons from other countries that faced similar issues,” emphasised Mr. Wijesinha.
Many entrepreneurs are still enthusiastic and have not given up. They are the lifeblood of the country’s economy and should be encouraged. “If we measure the adversity quotient” of Sri Lankan entrepreneurs, it will probably be very high. Entrepreneurs must be looked after better. There may be a few miscreants and the government should punish them, he noted.
The chamber’s bilateral trade promotion programmes have been extremely useful and has also promoted several outward business delegations and study tours. This year the chamber witnessed a substantial increase of inward delegations and it had increased trade, added Mr. Wijesinha.