Sri Lanka's outstanding achievement of winning the World Cup provides several
lessons for the country's economy. The lessons are particularly relevant for the political leadership entrusted with the task of resolving the country's economic and social problems. There are also lessons for the public at large.
The outstanding lesson of the World Cup's success is the team work displayed by the Sri Lankan cricket team. Foreign commentators knowledgeable in the game were quick to point out that Sri Lanka's success was in no mean measure due to excellent coordination and efforts of the team rather than individual feats.
The Cricket Board, Coach, the Manager and the Team worked without friction, with camaraderie, dedication and commitment. The Captain as well as those who made notable personal successes down played their own efforts and under scored the work of their colleagues. This is indeed the foremost lesson which the World Cup teaches. If the country is to achieve its economic goals it is absolutely essential that the political leadership entrusted with the task should work as a team collectively and together. Their objectives must be shared objectives and their dedication to those objectives must be complete and unqualified in order to ensure that they make a success of their efforts. Unfortunately in this respect the efforts of Sri Lanka's cricket team are in stark contrast to those of the government.
Our cricket success is in no small measure due to the professional management of our cricket. Fortunately it has not suffered from political interference in its affairs. We know fully well that the efforts of past champions failed owing to discord and organisational problems in their respective cricket boards. Two teams which had considerable talent, years of experience and past successes failed owing to their internal administration being untidy. In contrast, Sri Lanka had worked things out and a professional approach was evident. Could we say the same about our public service, public corporations or statutory bodies?
The success of our cricket team was not an achievement on the day of play alone. Years of hard work and disciplined training had been behind the achievement. In fact the comprehensive wins against all the teams it faced seemed so easy precisely because of the hard work that had preceded this tournament. The large cricket loving public should know that as much as the success of Sri Lanka's cricketers was due to their hard work and discipline, the country's economic success depends heavily on discipline and stringent work ethics. It was salutary that the government did not declare a holiday and pointed out that the need of the hour was work not holidays.
For success in cricket as indeed in most fields of human endeavour there is a need of finance. Increased funding for cricket has been an important factor in achieving the success it has. Although a poor country the sponsorship of many organisations and individual support have been responsible for the enhanced funding of cricket. Much larger funding is now expected in order to back Sri Lanka's cricket particularly for its test cricket to achieve greater heights and to attain the objective of an unrivaled position in cricket by the year 2000.
Similarly, if the Sri Lankan economy is to sustain an economic growth rate of 8 per cent or higher per year, the crying need is higher domestic savings. The current domestic savings of around 17 per cent of GDP would not be adequate to propel the economy to higher growth rates. The country should attempt to mobilise savings in the order of 20 to 25 per cent. Then we would be in a better position to finance the savings investment gap with foreign resources and to generate an economic growth of around 10 per cent.
Sri Lanka's cricket team could not have achieved its success if the team were to be divided by considerations of language, religion, caste or similar sectarian concerns. The cricketers were able to work as a team because they looked at themselves as a Sri Lankan team and not as representatives of particular sections of the community. In fact when the team faced its most traumatic experience Down Under strong Sri Lankan sentiments overrode any other possible narrower concerns. The team came out more strongly in support of its member from a minority community.
Cricket can also teach us another important lesson for our national life. Cricket matches always begin precisely at the appointed time, unless weather conditions do not permit. The limited over game is in addition an exercise in time management: the ability to deliver the goods in a limited period of time. Can we say that either our leaders or the public service or even private enterprise have the kind of time management which is essential for the economic use of the most scarce resource: Time.
If we can learn these lessons and perhaps several more from our achievement of being the World Champions in Limited Over Cricket then our success in the World Cup would have a much greater impact on our nation's development.
In its first step towards establishing the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) the government has announced duty concessions on 31 items, mainly agricultural products.
The gazette notice announcing the duty concessions was issued after the first SAARC inter-governmental group meeting on trade liberalization in Colombo on March 14.
The meeting reiterated the member-states' commitment towards implementing all components of the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) to establish the South Asia Free Trade Area by the year 2000.
Trade Ministry secretary Keerthi Weragoda told a news conference all member countries had finalized formalities to give effect to tariff concessions covering 226 items agreed upon during the meeting.
"The meeting decided that member countries should exchange full information on para-tariff and non-tariff measures applicable on products covered under SAPTA by March 31 this year", he said.
"The meeting decided to adopt a combination of approaches, namely product-by-product basis, tariff reductions on sectoral basis, across the board tariff reductions and direct trade measures, in the second round of negotiations" he added.
"We agreed to discuss the possibility of extending the list of 226 items covered in the first round of talks to around 1000 items that is, to the maximum possible extent, in the second round, in order to make SAPTA a reality as soon as possible", he said.
Mr. Weragoda said they had also agreed to provide detailed information on inter-SAARC trade flows on a regular basis to the SAARC Secretariat at Kathmandu for circulation among member states.
"Streamlining of customs procedure is important in this connection. We decided to discuss such trade facilitation measures as improving visa and import and export licensing procedures in our subsequent meetings", he said.
Mr. Weragoda observed that the realization of the ultimate goal of free movement across national barriers as in the European Community (EC) would be a slow and gradual process. "SAPTA should be a mutually beneficial exercise. We cannot permit a situation where one country is adversely affected and another is at a tremendous advantage", added Mr. Weragoda.
Among the 31 items granted duty concessions are Maldive fish, sprats, oranges, apples, coriander, plywood, jute, iron wire, motor spares and motor cycles. The duty on motor spares has been reduced from 20% to 10% and on Maldive fish from 10% to 5%.
India has approved as many as 106 items for duty concessions, including cloves, nutmeg, apricots, coconut milk powder, coconut cream, chocolate and dried skip jack (fish).
Certificates of Origin would be required for all imports as a safeguard against goods manufactured in non-SAARC countries their way into SAARC markets sans due duties, via a member state, a Trade Ministry official said.
The inter-governmental group meeting follows the mandate given at the sixth meeting of the committee on Economic Co-operation held in New Delhi in November last year.
The South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement was ratified by all member states on November 7, 1995 and came into effect on December 7.
Two Grant Contracts under the "Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects" (GAGP) Scheme, totalling up to US$ 105,764 (nearly Rs. 5.6 million), were signed between Japanese Ambassador Yasuo Noguchi, and the heads of two organizations recently.
These grants are in addition to those offered to the nine organizations which received approximately Rs. 12 million in December 1995, and in February this year respectively.
The Government of Japan introduced "The Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects" (GAGP) Scheme in 1989. The objective of GAGP is to supplement its existing Official Development Assistance (ODA) scheme such as Grant Aid, Yen Loan, and Technical Assistance.
The GAGP meets the various socio-economic development needs in developing countries by providing financial assistance mainly to NGOs, research institutions, hospitals and local government in order to carry out their grassroots projects relating to primary health care, education, public welfare, environment, women-in-development and poverty alleviation programmes.
This scheme has acquired a high reputation because of its speedy and flexible assistance to "grassroots" development projects.
From 1989 up to this year, the Government of Japan has donated a total amount of Yen 128,324,057 for 41 projects in Sri Lanka.
The Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter lists five items, namely, approach to global problems such as environment, basic human needs, human resources development and other cooperation for improvement and dissemination of technologies, infrastructure improvement and structural adjustment.
Developing countries' demand for these types of assistance is high, and these are the areas in which Japan should make positive contribution.
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