Six critically important success factors to implement the budget
The national budget provides many initiates but there are concerns about the Government being able to implement the initiatives. A practical approach to implementing some of the initiatives would be to treat them as projects, e.g., Digital Economy Advancement, Public Transport Modernisation. However, there are some initiatives that would best be positioned as contributing to one or more widely-supported causes, rather than stand-alone projects. For example, the following budget initiatives are relevant to growing the ICT sector, e.g.:
a. Investment Promotion and Facilitation
b. SMEs – the backbone of economic development
c. Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship
d. Supporting Women’s Economic Participation
e. Sri Lankan Expatriates
f. Science and Technology Human Resource Development
Since there is interest in growing the ICT sector why not establish a project that focuses on “ICT Sector Development” and embraces Budget Initiatives (a) – (f).
To summarise, the implementation of the budget is like implementing many projects.
It is widely proclaimed that there are six critically important Success Factors that are essential for successfully implementing projects:
1. Strong leadership
2. Stakeholder engagement
3. Thorough planning
4. Monitoring and adaptation
5. Effective communications
6. Determination
There are three actions that should be applied for each project and that, together, address the five Success Factors.
ACTION I: Establish a Project Leadership Team (responsible for Success Factors 1 – 6 throughout the life of the project)
The team leader should be accountable to the President or a Minister. Team members should include non-government persons if implementation of the project involves or impacts stakeholders who are outside of government.
ACTION II: Develop and implement a strategic action plan (addresses Success Factor 1, 2 and 4 – 6)
The Project Leadership Team would be responsible for developing, or exercising hands-on oversight of the development of, the strategic action plan. The plan should build on:
The outcome of conferences such as the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit in January 2025
Lessons learned in other countries such as Mauritius
The advice provided by subject-matter experts
The implementation of each strategic action must be assigned to a team member.
ACTION III: Conduct quarterly project reviews (addresses Success Factors 4 and 6)
The Project Leadership Team must be conduct quarterly project reviews. The team leader must hold team members accountable for the expected results associated with the strategic actions assigned to them. The outcome of each review must be communicated to stakeholders. This is particularly important if there are concerns about progress and/or changes. More tips pertaining to Actions I – III are provided in the article (Parts I – III ) at https://www.sundaytimes.lk/241208/business-times/need-for-hands-on-political-leadership-579688.html.
Applying the above suggestions provides the government with a basis for delivering short-term results and demonstrating progress in implementing initiatives that will require more than 4-5 years, particularly if combined with quarterly reporting as suggested in the article at https://www.sundaytimes.lk/250216/business-times/like-public-companies-the-govt-should-issue-quarterly-performance-reports-587462.html.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, himself, will need to vigorously apply the success factors as he oversees the implementation of the budget.
(The writer can be reached at george@cs-communications.com).
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