Let down by political, civil and business leaders

The Chinthanaya is today a prayer book, according to a red sahodhraya. An opening of a new public toilet to the tarring of a rural road is referred to as benefits delivered to the people under the Chinthanaya. The red sahodaraya’s are themselves ringing red bells coming from their upbringing, yet committed to an ancient dogma.

The greens are in a leadership crisis and are focussing on retention of power by small in-party re-organizations forgetting the nation at large. The bureaucracy and the public sector are in shambles, with several headed monsters at its helm not focusing on implementation according to a common vision. The private sector is divided, and is seeking a southern consensus without a common vision to guide its own direction setting.

Civil society is also heavily divided. Religious leaders are not playing their expected role in society. The Central Bank has taken its eyes off its main responsibility of inflation control. Citizen Perera is left to bear the resultant economic and social pressures. What a state for an Island nation, nearly 60 years after its independence, once called the pearl of the Indian Ocean! At a recent meeting of multi stakeholders of Sri Lankan society a finance minister in waiting used strong words to describe the folly of our past 60 years of governance. He highlighted how the nation had squandered its wealth on welfare measures and investments in health and education sans focus, networks to global trends, and the required key quality outcomes to yield competitive advantages. He went on to refer to the ill focussed and ineffective infrastructure spends that excludes people outside the western province from benefiting from new investments and market access.

A former private sector CEO and later a bureaucrat clearly articulated the need for a policy framework of the type that made Singapore, a competitive giant with a per capita income of nearly 30 times that of Sri Lanka. He urged that eradication of poverty will come only by growth achieved through a successful national competitiveness strategy. This he said requires a common long term development agenda that replicates the successes of Singapore whilst recognizing the interim need for safety nets for the poor and adjustment periods for weak institutions based on;

* A stable, predictable, macro economic environment, characterized by low budget deficits, tight inflation control, and a competitive real exchange rate.

* An outward oriented, market friendly trade and industrial regime emphasizing the dismantling of import control and tariff and sending strong signals to industry to restructure and a strong export push.

* A proactive foreign investment strategy which emphasizes the targeting of a few realistic sectors, markets, host countries with overseas offices as public/private partnerships, competitive environment incentives and a streamlined investment approval process.

* Sustained investment in human capital at all levels (especially tertiary level scientific, IT and engineering education), increased enterprise training, tax breaks for training, information campaigns to educate firms about benefits of training.

* Comprehensive technology support for quality management, productivity improvements, and technical services (eg. Grants for obtaining ISO 9000, creating productivity centres), and commercialization of technology institutes.

* Access to ample industrial finance and competitive interest rates through prudent monetary policy, management, competition in the banking sector and special soft loans for SME’s.

* An efficient and cost competitive infrastructure- transport, telecom and electricity.

A one time lady Finance Director of a leading blue chip reminded that in a policy regime of the type referred to earlier, even the private sector must get out of its syndrome of depending on government hand outs and subsidies.

Will the political masters awaken to the realities now in the light of a southern consensus for peace? Will they see the need to drop any dogma driven national policies in preference for growth and focussed infrastructure spend oriented policy regimes? Will the J-Biz and chambers collectively accept a policy regime driven by the principles articulated by these three speakers; develop their vision around growing the economic pie significantly and sharing the large benefits of a smaller share of the big pie; and not push for short term gains that negate value in the long term?

Will regulators develop regulations that encourage competition and free market principles whilst assuring that the freedom is not misused to monopolise or control people, institutes nor stifle their creativity, innovativeness and entrepreneurship?

Will there be leaders of society who will accept the challenge of managing the change, with effective communications and leadership action.Will a common development agenda seeking national competitiveness led growth drive the nation and its people to prosperity and Sri Lanka elevated to box in its true potential weight category?

Making this a pipe dream or a reality is in the hands of the leaders of society.