SL needs open-doors strategy with market oriented policies
File picture of construction at the Colombo Port City
Our politicians keep boasting about our strategic location but have failed to exploit its full benefits. We don’t need to go begging when our country has all the ingredients. We need to let our private sector drive the local economy with the government involved as a facilitator. Sri Lanka has more potential to grow – it’s just that we need to fix it.
Sri Lanka (SL) has been for too long classified as a developing country. We need a strategic development plan and a vision for the future of the economy that stands on trade, aviation and maritime, tourism, logistics and retail. With these developments in essence, the future will not only arrive in SL, it will also take off towards a new phase of growth and development.
The Indian Ocean has been an important location in the strategic calculations of the great powers of the world, primarily due to the economic impact of this region in the East–West maritime trade. We need to invest in marketing our strengths. This island has much more to offer. The Government should take the lead role in marketing our country. Dubai, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand, Singapore, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and now Myanmar – never stops marketing their countries.
We have the best address in the region to create an economic hub of south Asia, an aviation and maritime hub, a tourism hub and special economic free zones. We need to add value to the Sri Lankan economy by providing integrated business solutions to attract regional, local and international investors looking for unique business platform. We need to become the investors’ focal choice as a free zone destination. Tap the investors from South Asia and Asia. Take advantage of the current economic affairs in India.
Chinese involvement whatever the objectives will give the country a boost from an economic point of view. The Chinese have also been outsourcing their manufacturing production to lower cost countries in Africa, Egypt and other countries in dark Africa. What the Chinese will want though, is a lot more Chinese manpower deployed in the outsourced countries.
Open special economic zones in Hambantota, Trincomalee and Jaffna offering tax incentives and investment incentives to the local and foreign investors. Free zones strength depends on its territorial strengths, such as tourism, logistics, distribution and manufacturing. Therefore free zones ideally should be located within port or airport boundaries. Bonded trucking by road / rail from the port to airport creates a freight corridor which is a powerful proposition for a transshipment hub for sea-air. The government should fast-track the expressway and railway from Matara to Hambantota.
The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the airport and aviation should have a professional marketing team in promoting our ports and airports. Agree to bilateral agreements in bringing new airlines to fly into the country. Hundreds of ships or aircrafts may pass through or fly over SL, but that doesn’t mean the ships or airlines will call over or land in SL. We need to create markets – a good example; Emirates airline made Dubai. Airports and ports are now key nodes in the global economy serving as engines of local economy development. These institutions should be managed professionally and developed into business hubs. The freed up berths at the Colombo Port constitutes some of the most sort out waterfront properties. These properties under the SLPA should be planned to be given for FDI for commercial development. Convert some of the berths to passenger terminals thereby increasing the passenger capacity and attract passenger vessels to Colombo.
In the absence of a strong national carrier, we have to open up and make it attractive to other airlines to come into the country. An airline is the best marketing arm a country can buy. Tourism is central and key to make airline operations viable. On a macro level, looking at the hub concept, look at what Dubai has done. As an island SL needs airlines to connect and keep up with the rest of the world. Two airports in the country give an advantage in creating connectivity. 30 per cent or more of our tourists travel to the South and the East. We need to promote and create a market for MRIA Mattala airport.
Tourism in SL as an island could grow rapidly. Our value is heritage and authenticity as well as the scenic beauty, wild life and being an island nation with beautiful beaches. Our country, being an island, should open up tourism in every part of the country, similar to Thailand. The industry is one of the top foreign exchange earners and can have an impact throughout the economy, supporting employment generation as well as supply chain. Being a people-friendly oriented industry, tourism will revitalise local economies. We should also develop domestic airports into business hubs. Domestic airports will strengthen its competitiveness in attracting tourism while local airports will support small and medium size businesses.
(The writer is an expert in
aviation/airlines/logistics and free zones based in Dubai. He can be reached at shennal.acr@gmail.com)Â Â