Contingency plan proposed for businesses affected by terror attacks
Sri Lanka government has been urged to implement a spectrum of response measures to mitigate the cascading damages caused to the economy especially businesses in tourism, retail businesses, transportation industry and other critical units such as the insurance industry.
A contingency plan will be submitted to the government soon to protect and provide concessions with the aim of restoring normalcy in the country’s business activities.
It is now being prepared by a group of high ranking government officials, private sector professionals and economic experts.The plan proposes effective policy and regulatory responses to protect financial systems and business sectors in the face of terror attacks. The recent terror attack has paralysed big or small businesses countrywide, whether restaurants, shopping malls, hotels, transport, and even public venues such as cinema halls, conference and convention halls.
When people feel a threat to their life in a less safety environment, they use to change their spending and life patterns, a leading sociologist said.
The recent terror attacks have not only disrupted normal business activity, but also increased the costs of doing business, either directly through economic damage; decline in tourism, or indirectly through the consequences of having to expend resources for costly security measures.
One of the proposals in the contingency plan was to form think tanks for different economic sectors to formulate and implement response measures through the line ministries to immediately reactivate the economic and essential business activity providing necessary security and concessions.
It has been suggested to create awareness; planning, response and recovery making use of available resources, emergency procedures, communication, and mitigation which need to be clearly addressed.
As this type of crisis management is not limited to the government departments, it is recommended that this be given to a co-operative of relevant stakeholders, to work as an independent organisational entity with the full representation of all involved.
The Pettah wholesale and retail business es have been affected to great extent and it was down by 20 per cent, Colombo traders complained. Most of the traders are continuing this business with bank borrowings and they cannot survive anymore under the present circumstances.
However some businessmen and new comers to the market who received cash through illegal channels in the past few years are dominating the market ousting traditional traders, they complained.
The Colombo Business Association has written to the President, the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the Central Bank urging to grant a 6-month to one year moratorium for loans, leases and tax payments as they were highly indebted and unable to continue their businesses.