Beyond the Victory Day… (Making a resilient nation …)
View(s):
Denzil Perera
As we celebrate war heroes after 11 years of defeating terrorism, we are confronted with a few challenges. Have we made the best out of winning a 30 year old war? Have we progressed as a nation? Are we resilient to face challenges? As it’s evident with all due respect to all who took bold decisions as and when needed and guiding and coordinating the war and handling post war issues faced as a nation, it’s sad to see how some of our own people trying to betray the country for short-term gains and for their advantage. It’s evident that winning has thousand fathers but have we as a nation done the best to our war heroes? Have we taken the country an inch beyond where it was after war? Are we stronger as a nation than at the time we defeated terrorism? Of course we have the freedom and liberty to live but there was a time where there was no guarantee on our lives but thanks to right leadership and right strategy, mother Lanka can breathe today but as a nation we have not reached where we could have reached by now. Where did we go wrong post-war?
From the government end, infrastructure development took place in grand scale including widening up roads and making new bridges etc. Private sector was asked to join hands with the government in branching out businesses in the N&E areas. However, the poor remained poor and the rich got richer. In addition to that the lower-middle class reached the ‘middle–middle’ and the ‘upper-middle’ boundaries. Therefore, it should be brought to your notice that there are unresolved issues which are still attacking the rural Sri Lanka be it in North or South. In a country where there are 5.5 million families using the broom at least twice a day, the makers of brooms are poor. In a country where there are alcohol and tobacco companies making money, the farmers who grow tobacco and cane remain poor. In a country where there is a tea industry which makes LKR 200 billion a year, small tea planters and tea pluckers remain poor. There are thousands of SME companies which have found no market for their products and they are suffering with no capital or no technology or may be no packing and branding for their products to take them to the market. Where have we gone wrong?
We have failed to plan as a nation and as highlighted in one of my previous articles we are only planning to fail. Allowing construction to take place without any proper town planning or without any consultation of town planners making cities uglier, there seem to be no national plan to develop the country as a whole. It’s in this backdrop, a national level dialogue needs to be initiated to Re-Design Sri Lanka where all the SME sector projects and SME related other projects such as tourism, agriculture, education, and youth development, cultural development etc should be handled under a national level initiative. Entrepreneurship couldn’t be developed by conducting lectures and trainings for SME sector instead there has to be a national level plan which can accommodate the grievances of the sector and propagating facilities and knowledge through practical programs where the entrepreneurs in the SME sector are connected with a market. It is evident that most of the SME sector manufacturers have the issue of not having certifications and proper standards. Another major issue is that the rural-youth is wasting their time and energy on nothing and one million of them on three-wheelers leaving the nation with no trained/ skilled labour.
Where can we begin?
There are several development initiatives that are taking place in the country with newly introduced policies by the new government. The fundamental mistake we as a nation have done was to encourage imports without any control. As you may see, the Services sector has a 60% contribution to GDP which is not at all acceptable as majority of it is Retail and wholesale. On the other hand, due to failures in the customs, anything can be imported under-invoiced by making them more competitive in the retail market sweeping the local manufacturers out of the market. Globalization was praised way too much over the last three decades and the same has paved the way for over dependency on low-quality Chinese products. Covid-19 has opened the eyes of local consumers as to why they should by locally manufactured products as opposed to Chinese made cheap products.
What is the way forward?
Coming back to the original question as to why manufacturers and suppliers of certain industries remain poor – the answer is that there seem to be a vicious cycle they are stuck in. First and foremost the SME sector should be taken out of the misery they are in. Due to the absence of systems and institutions which are effective in providing solutions to the SME sector, the SME entrepreneurs have miserably failed in delivering their core job as they have to be jacks of all trades to handle production which ranges from finding raw material, finding packaging, finding marketing and branding, and more importantly finding buyers and markets. The entire life of SMEs have become a never-ending struggle where there are no facilities and no institute which can truly be instrumental in taking them out of the misery. Therefore, for them to have freedom of mind to continue what they are good at, the peripheral services such as packaging, branding, marketing and even shipping etc. should be handled by a central body which can handle the process end-to-end. There has to be a financial market assistance that could be extended to these people on provincial or district basis. There is a need to register all the SME sector employees and entrepreneurs under one database. Traditional artists and craftsmen should be identified and recognized for their specialties and regional or provincial product-based markets should be developed highlighting unique arts and crafts traditions that are inherent to each province or district. The senior craftsmen should be recognized and should be provided with a social welfare scheme to protect them and their technology which is mostly in the form of tacit knowledge. Another reason why the sectors are not growing is that, there is no recognition for the SME sector. Craft workshops can be promoted as a part of authentic experience for tourists. Tourism should be connected with SME sector.
What should be the base
of the new era of SME?
There is a rich culture, heritage and value system that ancient Sri Lankan society held on to. It’s this culture and its real values that should be the base on which the sector should be developed. Taking the ayurwedic (Oriental medicine) sector, arts, crafts, traditional handloom, etc there’s a rich culture which can generate stories which elaborate the origin of these industries in Sri Lanka. The time has come for us to go to those roots and give due recognition to the age old system, if we are to build a unique cult around these industries. Mr Ajith Perera – The founder of the movement “Redesign Sri Lanka”- well-known studio potter and artist, mentions that it’s high time for Sri Lanka to look at what Mingie system did in Japan to revitalize the culture and rural economy. The fundamental philosophy is to create simple arts and crafts which can be a basic need of majority of the society. Hand-made nature of this art is at the core of the Mingei Movement, and the fact that it is produced in large quantities is related to the utilitarian aspect. Art should be inexpensive, simple, and practical in design. Unlike ornate luxury items, the simplicity and inexpensiveness is what should give this art its charm. Art should be not only functional, but also actually used by the masses.
This will create a more resilient rural economy which can survive on its own and also will save much needed currency reserves to the economy. There has to be a movement to Re-Design Sri Lanka as it’s going to provide solutions to many prevailing issues in the rural sector.