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Investment
important to end poverty As part of celebrations NCCSL felicitated its 10 oldest member companies, past presidents and longest serving employees. Companies:- N Vithyalingam & Co Ltd, The Finance Co Ltd, Millers Ltd, Ceylon Entertainment Ltd, Sri Krishna Corporation Ltd, Mascons Ltd, Eastern Merchants Ltd, Shums Co Ltd, and Colombo Picture Palace. Past PresidentS: G S Chatoor, L L Samarasinghe, Muni Kundanmal, Maj. Douglas Wijesinghe, Thilak De Zoysa, Chandra Embuldeniya and Asoka Gunasekera. Longest Serving Employees: Tissa Pemanath Ruberu, Mrs H L Indrani de Silva and Mrs Priyangani Amaraweera. Harrold said the World Bank did a survey of the business community in Sri Lanka and asked what were the top issues they attributed to macro economic instability, policy uncertainty, the cost of finance in terms of high interest rates. The single most decisive factor was the high cost and the unreliability of electricity were the major setbacks faced by the investor as issues. He said that the accumulated loss of the Ceylon Electricity Board was greater than the sum of external aid received per year and to stop the losses and addressing the problem is of grave national importance. The level of government revenue 25 years ago was 22 percent of the GDP. But defense expenditure and interest payments were each less than one percent which left around 17 percent of government earnings for investment in infrastructure, development, healthcare and education. The socio-economic indicators to investments made in this period were impressive. But in 2002 revenue had fallen to 14 percent GDP and defense expenditure has rocketed to 6 percent of the GDP. Further, interest payments attributed to 5 percent of the GDP. During the years revenue was reduced from 22 percent to 14 percent. Once 11 percent is spent for defence and interest out of the 14 percent, there is only 3 percent left and there is nothing left for investment in the country by the public sector. He said that the macro framework has been extraordinarily hard to resolve without compensation and the government has to consume a lot of savings by issuing more and more bonds as the only source of finance now. This increase in government expenditure in excess of government earnings has lead to increased government borrowing. This invariably pushes the interest rates up and reduces local investments. Harrold said that the price of electricity in Sri Lanka is very high and the CEB is losing billions of rupees and the price of electricity is highest in South Asia, adding that there is something wrong in that sector. He said that this cannot go on but something has to be done in the long run and should change the government structure in the CEB to get rid of losses. Nirmali Samaratunga, President, National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, said that reaching 50 years is a significant milestone interwoven with the development of Sri Lanka. NCCSL’s role was most significant as it was able to “Ceylonise” the trade as it was in the hands of non-nationals through pioneering initiatives. It also played a bigger role in making the trade export oriented and inculcating an export culture. NCCSL has been involved in the introduction of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) in workplaces and the preparation of the National ITC Road Map. It has played a key role focusing on Small and Medium Sector (SME) in getting international linkages while working for expansion and promotion of trade and investment. She said that the past Presidents also played a very significant role to reach 50 years. She
said the tsunami rebuilding concept is being continued and many
activities have been done with the assistance of overseas donors.
Their attention has been increasingly focused towards public--private
partnership. She remarked that to achieve growth there should be
lasting peace and political stability and another vital area has
been the establishment of law and order. |
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