SL’s time to reset outlook and thinking
A panel discussion in progress. From left - Krishan Balendra - Chairman, John Keells Holdings, Mahesh Amalean - Chairman, MAS Holdings and Shiran Fernando – CCC Chief Economist (moderator).
A top business leader this week urged Sri Lankan industries to follow an approach to generate profits by improving value addition in production processes.
“We are facing a unique window of opportunity to shape the direction of our economy. These unique circumstances give us an opportunity for alternative thinking through retrospection and introspection. As the global economy is undertaking the ‘Great Reset,’ we also must take this opportunity to reset our thinking and our perspectives. In the current fiscal and monetary environment, there lies a myriad of opportunities for every one of us, be it in the field of agriculture or technology, education or finance, commercial or socioeconomic well-being,” Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said addressing the 20th Sri Lanka Economic Summit, with a theme on developing a roadmap for economic take-off for Sri Lanka leveraging on the key policy levers to ensure a successful economic recovery.
Addressing the summit, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa encouraged the development of new business models, adoption of new technologies and platforms, and improvement of infrastructure needed to support this productivity enhancing transformation. “Investment is also needed in human resource development to enable our workers to make the most of these changes. It must be admitted, however, that some state institutions may lag behind in this regard at the moment. This is due to legacy problems including lack of infrastructure, process engineering, and training. Changing this is one of my key priorities.”
He said that by converging four prominent technologies—social, mobile, analytics, and cloud there’s a potential to transform the way governance works. “The recent introduction of the Staysafe.gov.lk website to ease COVID19 contact tracing is a case in point. More broadly, the fostering of citizen-centric digital governance will ensure that services such as obtaining National Identity Cards, Passports, Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Driving Licenses, Land Deeds etc is made faster and more convenient to the public. The digitisation of the National Persons’ Registry in particular will enable a more streamlined and secure process for identity verification. This will in turn build the foundation for improved online service delivery in many other areas, including financial services and ecommerce. It will also greatly enhance the Government’s ability to effectively widen the tax base, which will be one of the key factors in improving our fiscal position.”
India’s Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivering the keynote address noted that, policies and their implementation must be intact to allow businesses to succeed in establishing partnerships between India and Sri Lanka.
She added that India will work together with Sri Lanka to mutually strengthen each other’s economy.
“I am happy to say that India shall engage with Sri Lankan authorities to make sure meaningful assistance, and interventions are made so that the economies of both countries can be developed simultaneously, and the benefits are shared among the people,” she said noting that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of External Affairs, and her ministry will work together with Indian manufacturers and investors to look at Sri Lanka to deepen trade.