Sri Lanka needs long term plan and political will to implement it
A long term plan with clear guidelines and the political will to implement it without change is what Sri Lanka needs most, a departing envoy has said. “The government needs to have a long term plan with clear guidelines and stick to it without having so many changes in policies from time to time,” noted German Ambassador for Sri Lanka, Juergen Morhard in an exclusive interview with the Business Times. Spending the last few months of his term of office here, he said, “You cannot make all (the) people happy with regulations (laws), but you have to go through it. Otherwise you will never have a result. This is very important because only from the national level you have these regulations being implemented and enforced.
You need to have a long term plan at least for the next 25 years and stick to it.” He said there have been many changes in policies over the last few years. For instance, he pointed, there was a lot of confusion on the tariff to be implemented on electric cars whether it was 5, 50 or 55 per cent. This has been changing often within a period of six months. “You need to give clear guidelines (in a) country where its leaders are well aware that there are solutions (to issues). You find the legislation here but then you have to have the political will to proceed.” Mr. Morhard said, “When you look around the world, the problems faced by the governments, there are solutions available for each of them. It has not only helped to look for solutions on feasibility studies but at the very end it’s the legislature and the government that comes up and regulate, show leadership and put the way forward.
The departing ambassador spoke on a range of issues. On business relations between Sri Lanka and Germany, he said, “Many German corporates have shown interest in Sri Lanka. There are many sectors where German companies have traditionally been doing business with Sri Lanka with not just newly coming into the market. Germany is very interested and keen to partner in the Megapolis concept which we call smart cities. This is very much related to sustainable energy efficient ways, but this is something that German companies have been doing together. There are other technologies such as electrification of train, smart transport system, how to generate energy in a city and many other aspects. Germany has very advanced knowledge in developing Megapolis and smart city concepts.
Agriculture
He said there are many problems in the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka such as an overuse of fertilizer and pesticides. There is organic agriculture today, a trend and demand in Europe which could be applied to Sri Lankan agricultural sector. “In all industries there is a permanent pressure in a globalized scenario to innovate and to be more efficient. If you want to modernize the available machinery you could do it from a distillery to a garment factory with German technology.”
Tourism
Tourism is another sector where German tour operators are very much in the forefront to increase the number of Germans visiting Sri Lanka. Germany is not only looking at investments in Sri Lanka but to partner in the educational vocational process for service industries. Hotels are built but there are no quality services available in the country. “We are looking at a public private partnership to set up a new hotel school in On Colombo,” noted Mr. Morhard. On visas to visit either country, he said that the German embassy has facilitated in securing long term business visas for Sri Lankan
businesses
However, he noted it’s very difficult for foreign investors here to get long term business visas with multiple entry access. “If you want to improve international trade you should be lenient or liberal when it comes to businessmen going back and forth.”
Mr. Morhard also mentioned that the most outstanding change that has been seen in Sri Lanka is the freedom of expression. “People are not afraid to express themselves and speak about things happening around anymore.”