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Singapore experts to restructure Foreign Ministry
View(s):Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry is set to be restructured with the assistance of Singapore government experts, official sources revealed. A proposal to restructure the ministry and capacity building in anti-corruption measures has been endorsed by the Cabinet’s Economic Management Committee (EMC).
The ministry has sought the approval to obtain assistance for staff training from Indian experts. But the committee, at a recent meeting, has given approval to limit it to Singapore assistance. Singapore has agreed to help Sri Lanka restructure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following talks held between Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and his Singapore counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan last year. The ministry will be restructured administratively and prudently as any other institutions to enable it to meet the country’s growing role in its environs shifting from the old British system of carrying out its functions, according to EMC documents seen by the Sunday Times.
Even the British Ministry of External Affairs has shifted from its system of administration in the face of new trends and challenges of the new world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be restructured to further strengthen and rationalise its foreign services and promote its role towards economic and commercial diplomacy, a senior official of the ministry said.
It has taken the administrative structure of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Singapore and various other foreign ministries for its study to formulate a restructuring plan of the Sri Lankan ministry, he said.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva, the Government has directed Sri Lankan diplomats in missions abroad to re-channel their efforts, energies and resources to improving the country’s commercial interests worldwide.
A new strategic direction has been laid out for the country’s Foreign Service through “economic diplomacy”. This plan had been designed to put trade and commerce at the helm of foreign policy. The aim is to improve the country’s declining trade and investment performance which is the key to the future prosperity of the people.Sri Lanka will be using economic diplomacy to expand exports, bring in investments, boost growth and take local firms abroad.
To attract foreign direct investments, measures will be taken to use state apparatus, diplomatic missions and state agencies, the ministry official said. A system is to be devised making each line ministers, ambassadors and officials responsible for the attraction of foreign investments.