At the recent monthly meeting of the Sunday Times Business Club (STBC) at the Taj Samudra, Colombo, the speaker Bahrain-based Hilmy Cader, Chief Executive MTI Consulting, was asked to list one or two key issues that need to be put right if Sri Lanka is to take off in the post-war era. His response: EDUCATION.
Speaking on ‘Strategizing and Marketing the Country (Sri Lanka)’ he said the country’s educational system plays an integral part in the development process and therefore Sri Lanka needs to revamp its educational system based on a National Educational Policy.
He said that India continued the pre-independence educational policy and today that system has paid off well.
Hilmy Cader at the Business Club |
Addressing a representative audience of STBC members, Mr Cader said the way out for Sri Lanka is to emphasize on drawing foreign investment into the country, improve exports and develop tourism. He said that this is the way most countries do.
He said that MTI has researched and has experience in this field, adding that countries have changed significantly from administration to management and in strategizing and marketing, they have moved from political independence to economic interdependency and from rationalization to liberalization.
He said that some countries are low in natural resources and some countries are low in management resources, pointing out that places like Canada and Australia are high in both management and natural resources while countries like Nigeria, Myanmar and Sweden are rich in natural resources. He said that there are countries with a high management resource and some countries are high with natural resources. Countries like Japan, Singapore and Dubai are low in natural resources but they have their own human resources.
He said that countries are changing from producing weapons to mass construction and mass communication, adding that there are businesses controlled by governments and businesses enabled by governments.
The world, he noted, is increasingly looking at Asia – information technology in Asia.
Mr Cader said that countries are realizing that it is not important to produce what they could but produce what the world wants. He referred to a project done by MTI Consulting in Pakistan to lift exports and what MTI did was first to map the global market and understand the capabilities of Pakistan and the competition and demand. They looked at what the country has and made a complete assessment of what is available in terms of human resources and natural resources and as to how to add value to human resources and natural resources.
He said that Sri Lanka’s economy is based on tea pluckers, house maids, etc and said that Sri Lankan entrepreneurs should be front-end exporters. He said that Sri Lanka should not try everything but try out things that could compete in the world market and should be within the value chain.
Investors should have a one stop shop to facilitate business and spoke of the case in Bahrain where even in shopping malls there are government offices where investors could get everything done in that office itself.
The Club is hosted by the Taj Samudra Hotel and co-sponsored by Hameedia. |
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