Graduate unemployment has been a serious problem for nearly three decades. Only a conserted effort by the university system, changes in attitudes by graduates and overall economic growth can resolve this problem. Graduate unemployment is not a problem peculiar to Sri Lanka. Both developing and developed countries have this phenomenon.
One of the primary requirements to make graduates more employable would be a change in university curricula to reflect the needs of industry. Unfortunately business enterprises and industrial establishments do not think that most graduates could be usefully employed in their outfits. This is due to university education being reduced to memorising notes and passing examinations rather than developing skills, not merely in the specialised field, but also of a general nature needed for the work a day world.
University education must instil in undergraduates attributes which are useful to employers. This would include development of a good work ethic, language and communication skills, leadership qualities and a dynamism and willingness to continue learning and updating of skills.
Unfortunately, many employers think that graduates lack these attributes and that it would be more useful to employ and train school leavers. University academics and university students themselves must realise that they cannot obtain employment unless these changes are made.
Such changes would not be confined to changing the university curricula alone, but would involve new approaches to knowledge seeking and attitudinal changes.
A strange phenomenon in Sri Lanka is that even graduates in technical subjects like agriculture and engineering and other sciences have little interest in working in practical fields. They look towards white collar jobs and executive appointments of an administrative nature, often in enterprises which have little relation to their acquired skills.
Banks and large business houses are their preferred employment avenues. Enterprises more closely related to the fields of study find science graduates not willing to put their hands to the wheel. They lack practical abilities and often complain about the working conditions in the field. Graduates must realise that employment opportunities in offices are limited and that they must acquire a practical bent which makes them useful. This has become particularly important with the diminishing role of government and the new employment opportunities being in private enterprises.
Private enterprises are driven by profits and employ persons who are productive and contribute to the profits of the business. They must contribute several times their cost in wages. That is a simple fact of life and sooner our university graduates remember it the better.
There are also changes which have occurred in the structure of our employment. Graduates must be far more entrepreneurial in their approach and be willing to apply their skills individually or collectively in business enterprises of their own. Graduates must seek employment opportunities by plying their trade, so to speak.
For instance electronic engineers must be willing to not merely seek employment opportunities in existing firms but establish their own to cater to the expanding needs of a community increasing their use of electric appliances. Medical graduates must not look merely to employment in the government medical service, but seek opportunities for private practice. This is particularly so with respect to doctors who have had some years of experience. They should not look upon government medical practice as a life long occupation.
Once they obtain adequate experience they must set up their own medical clinics as is done in other countries, especially developed countries. There is increasing evidence of a demand for private medical services and these could be satisfied through organised private practice. Similarly agriculture graduates should attempt to develop their own farms and intensive agricultural projects.
There is also a need to realise that those graduates who do not have specific skills should be prepared to do any type of work. They must not expect the government or society to provide them employment opportunities. In developed countries like the United States, a large number of university graduates are employed as taxi drivers, salesmen or other work which we in Sri Lanka do not consider to be fit and proper for university graduates.
This attitude of expecting certain types of 'high status' employment could create serious problems as university education grows. The fact is that many of our graduates neither have in-depth knowledge of the field that they have chosen to specialise in nor general aptitudes and skills which can be useful.
They also lack other skills besides their learning and memorising which would enable them to make a livelihood. Many graduates may have to seek employment opportunities quite unrelated to their university education and be satisfied if they find any employment which gives them an adequate livelihood.
There is also a need for employers to be more flexible in their approach to employing graduates. Employers themselves must take some responsibility for training graduates who have the requisite work attributes and be willing to re-train them.
There is an excessive emphasis on a knowledge of English. They must be willing to take graduates with a limited knowledge of English and provide them opportunities for learning the language. Employers must also contribute their ideas for the re-fashioning of university curricula and for training them in their establishments.
Recently the Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa went on record saying that none of the Moratuwa University graduates were unemployed. There are some reservations about the factual accuracy of this statement. Nevertheless it does reflect the fact that technical education provides better opportunities for employment. The government must recognise this and develop a bias in the educational facilities to encourage such education rather than a liberal Arts education which provides lesser employment possibilities.
We are not suggesting a neglect of liberal arts education. But it must be recognised that only a good liberal arts education could fit people into a society and employment. Large numbers of mediocre liberal arts graduates would only swell the unemployed ranks. The government must at least give indications of priorities in education by channelling scholarships and other facilities more towards those areas in which the graduates are more employable.
The problem of graduate unemployment cannot be easily resolved. It requires a thrust on many fronts if a significant dent is to be made in the resolution of the problem. Large numbers of unemployed graduates provide the material for social tensions. The government, the university system, employers and graduates themselves must all endeavour to find a solution to the problem. A serious study followed by a set of policy prescriptions are urgently needed to resolve this problem.
Most industrialists refuse to be concerned with the waste materials expelled regularly from their factories. But with environmental laws tightening around them and public nuisance litigation used ever more frequently, many are forced to realise the problem. For some particularly badly polluting factories this has meant closure or suspension of production, leaving the investors financially in the red.
The Industrial Pollution Reduction Programme (IPRP) is affiliated to the Central Environmental Authority, funded totally by UNIDO. The project kicked off in 1994, initially under foreign consultants, when the CEAs efforts to bring errant industrialists to book by playing policeman failed to deliver results upto their expectations. The difficulty of bringing industrialists to think in terms of cleaner waste products was, and is keenly felt by the project. But within the last few years, there have been several success stories worth mention as well. At the initial stages a UNIDO contracted consultant did a detailed project report all the overall condition of the industries here and recommended urgent action in several sectors as priority in arresting pollution. Among these were the Distilleries Corporation, the textile industry, tanneries and metal finishing trade.
The programme operates on a different line to confronting the industrialists with threats of legal action. They attempt to point out that the 'waste' of an industry is not exactly as useless as it appears. Most factories throw out valuable chemicals, minerals even the very produce processed at the factory. Added to waterways or land these constitute as harmful elements that endanger the environment. We give a new definition to waste, says National Programme Manager, Dr. V.U. Ratnayake. 'Waste is a valuable resource in the wrong place.'
Industrialists and businessmen need to see some financial incentive in spending good money to build a treatment plant or adopt cleaner production methods. The project aims at addressing this issue and pointing out the economic advantages of converting to eco friendly production.
The Distilleries Corporation, before it was privatised, was a perfect example. The refuse from the distilling process was so rich in sugar and nutrient that it totally wrecked life in the Dandugam Oya, to which the matter was discharged. When the project began working on the Distilleries Corporation, they made recommendations to update distilling process, and treat the waste before dispelling it into the waterway. Today the factory, now in private hands has modern distilling equipment which is more efficient, and the waste produced there is fed into a bio gas plant, then the effluent is treated and discharged in the Oya. 'By this the production has increased and there is less wastage and the bio gas generated is used by the factory,' Dr. Ratnayake said.
Another interesting fact is the revolving fund that has been established to finance industries who are willing to convert to eco friendly technology. The fund, granted by the UNDP operates on the basis of a soft loan drawn through the National Development Bank. Factories that have already gone through change will be demonstrated as success stories for other interested industrialists to view.
Apart from this, the project conducts audit training programmes to employees in these factories and other institutions who could later be called upon to do audits on industries . The audit training programme is advertised and a selected number of applicants are trained in waste audits of manufacturing plants. Here the auditors study the industry concerned and map out ways of reducing wastes and promoting cleaner production.
The extensive training enables participants to shape up the production in their own factories. Post training results show that some companies have been able to save millions by adjusting simple production processes. 'Take spray painting,'Dr.Ratnayake elaborated. ì the way bicycle bodies are spray painted here, 90 percent of the paint is splattered on the walls surrounding. This requires another type of sprayer, a little more expensive but nontheless cost effective.'
Ratnayake also pointed out that the project has also sought foreign expertise in training as well as conducting audits on chosen factories, textile and metal finishing.
Tanneries also have been targeted as one area where drastic change in production processes and waste treatment is required. As the tanneries are to be relocated within the next few years, no permanent solution is offered to their problems. But a Chrome Recovery Plant is now under construction, funded by the project. This plant will be a common facility, to be used by several tanneries that are in close proximity. The wastes of each factory will be fed into the plant and wasted chrome will be largely recovered. Chrome is an expensive metal that goes into the production of leather but when emitted as a waste is terribly harmful to humans. When the tanneries relocate to Hambantota, the project hopes to construct a modern effluent treatment plant there.
They have also studie the effluent problem at Sevanagala Sugar Industries where a lot of sugar waste is flushed into the Walawe ganga, creating a massive problem downstream at Ambalantota where water is pumped for city use. This liquid waste is today collected in ponds and when it rains overflows into the river. The project has harnessed technology where this waste could be reverted back into the sugar cane fields as fertiliser. If the expertise needed to help out a certain industry is not available with the project, they are able to tap the experience of consultants in similiar UNIDO projects.
Industries who wish to contact IPRP can come on Tel/Fax. 337737
or Tel. 439073-5.
The office is located at 1st Floor, CEA Office Building, Maligawatte Secretariat, Colombo 10.
The Sri Lankan software developer, Millennium Information Technologies is to be featured in the US produced World Business Review programme on automated trading services.
"The globalization of the economy is driving the creation of markets that transcend national boundaries and local exchanges," a statement from World Business Review said.
"Millennium Information Technologies Ltd. is developing software systems that are enabling global networking, which proffers the promise of increased opportunities for investors on a worldwide basis.
World Business Review is hosted by Casper Weinberger, chairman of Forbes magazine and former US Defense Secretary.
Produced by Multimedia Productions USA Inc, the Programme is distributed via public broadcasting networks including CNN. CNN International will broadcast the programme in the coming weeks.
Millennium supplied the automated trading system to the Colombo Stock exchange, believed to be a first exchange to use network architecture.
"Sophisticated investors are increasingly demanding 24 hours a day, seven days a week access to markets," World Business Review coordinating producer Marlyn Parsell said in a statement.
"Millennium is at the forefront of developing and applying the technologies that is making such access available to all investors, making the company the perfect choice for this World Business Review panel."
The company has also supplied Central depository systems to the Colombo and Mauritius stock exchanges and is now shortlisted to supply a CDS for equity and government debt securities in a European country.
It is also shortlisted to supply the Kenyan stock exchange.
"One of the finest technological and business milestones was the successful implementation of the world's first ever even driven exchange in Colombo which is based on network computing architecture," Millennium Chairman Herman Zieglaar said.
"Millennium is a company of experienced highly motivated professionals with a wide range of technical and marketing experience," says Millennium Chief Executive Tony Weerasinghe who was interviewed by World Business Review for the programme.
"This experience has been acquired over many years in the USA, UK, Singapore, Egypt, Yemen, Mauritius, Sweden and Sri Lanka."
Mr. Weerasinghe says the companies approach has been to create an environment similar to the companies operating in the Silicon Valley which provides an environment foster innovation, initiative, commitment and free thinking.
"Programmers come in jeans and T -shirts and worked in a free spirit atmosphere," he says. "They are allowed to explore new ideas and are not bound by strict standards."
In the best traditions of the silicon valley the company is also mostly employee owned. Management and staff own 62 per cent of the equity followed by Peoples Venture Investment company (25 per cent) and Ayojana Fund Management (13 per cent).
The company's business partners include Sun Microsystems, TIBCO and BaaN.
In addition to software development Millennium provides expertise in technology policy development, process re-engineering, technology acquisition, networking and distributed object computing architecture.
"We work closely with our customers to build applications that translate specific business requirements into powerful software solutions," the company says.
The company is now increasingly looking outward. Already it has partnered Atlas Corporation, AT & T, Ericcsson, Sabre decision Technologies Kenan Systems and TeliaData in developing software.
"One of the goals of Millennium IT is to establish a campus in Sri Lanka with 1000 programmers to promote the development and implementation of software solutions to meet the needs of the global village," says Mr. Weerasinghe.
Sri Inderjaya Holdings Sdn. Bhd. owners of General Electrical Company (GEC ) Malaysia one of the country's largest electronics companies is considering expanding their network in Sri Lanka following their recent investment here.
The multinational firm signed an agreement with Tritel Services Pvt. Ltd. to introduce a new pay phone system to Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile the company is already looking at starting an electrical components manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka.
"We are looking at investment in the region and we see Sri Lanka as a good investment opportunity. Sri Lanka is also multi-racial and multi-ethnic like Malaysia which attracts us to the country," said GEC Malaysia Chairman Tan Sri Dato `seri A D Arumugam in an Interview with The Sunday Times Business.
He said Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed was keen on Malaysians investing in the region and Sri Lanka was considered a good investment opportunity.
"These are long-term investments and we are confident that there will be a settlement to the war in the country , so this is the time to invest in the country," he said.
GEC Malaysia also specializes in mobile power stations which it introduced to the Philippines. "It takes a lot of time and money to install power stations in rural areas. This is where a transportable power station which supplies electricity via a mobile unit becomes useful," he said. According to the chairman, this is another viable prospect for investment in Sri Lanka.
Sri Inderjaya Holdings incorporated in Malaysia is principally involved in a number of ventures in Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam with fast growing network of representatives throughout the South Asian region. Their subsidiaries are involved in manufacturing electronics, supplying of telecommunications and power equipment among other things.
The company bought the majority shareholding in Tritel Services which is to launch Sri Lanka's fourth pay phone system with local and IDD facilities in October. Sri Inderjaya Holdings owns 95% of Tritel while the balance 5% is owned by Investment Promotions Consultants Ltd, a BOI-approved company.
Tritel payphones will operate on coins, prepaid cards and credit cards. The phones will accept Rs 1, Rs 2 , and Rs 5 coins while the prepaid cards will be priced at Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500. The phones will also accept Visa card , Mastercard and American Express credit cards. Initially 20,000-30,000 phones will be installed primarily in Colombo, Kandy and Galle while catering to a mass market all over the Sri Lanka, said Robert J Schuster Director / Country Manager Tritel Services. The entire project to install the phones in the country costs US $40 million.
Despite the rising competition in the field of telecommunications in Sri Lanka , Tritel services seem confident of gaining a market share.
Mr. Shuster explained that he finds the growing Cell phone industry in Sri Lanka complimentary to the Payphone systems. "Not all people can afford to have cellphones but most people can afford to use payphones while one person in the family may own a cellphone the others in the family will need payphones to contact the person," Mr. Shuster told The Sunday Times. He used Malaysia as an example of a country that has a massive market for both cellular phones and pay phones. He told the Sunday Times that the privatization of Sri Lanka telecom would also be benefiting to the company as it would ease the availability of loops for the payphone connections.
Tritel expects to beat their competitors by serving the public and customers with the most reliable cost efficient payphone system in the market today.
SESAME could well become a magic seed for Dry Zone farmers who must endure the long and lean post-monsoon months.
Farmers could soon be growing large quantities of sesame as a cash crop for export, according to a Japanese aid agency which works with over 300 local cooperatives.
"By next year, Sri Lankan farmers could be producing as many as 30,000 metric tonnes per annum," Masaru Doi of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) told Sunday Times Business. "But this depends on their willingness to do so."
Doi is convinced that Dry Zone farmers, who have traditionally grown sesame for a small domestic market, could cultivate a high-grade variety for sale on the lucrative Japanese market.
In Japan, where sesame oil and seed are used for cooking, an average of 140,000 metric tons areimported annually, each mt. ton now fetching around US $60,000, he said.
Sesame would be an ideal income supplement, according to cooperative development officials. It could be grown in arid parts of the country and would require little water.
"In Sri Lanka, we could cultivate sesame almost all over the island, especially in dry areas like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Dambulla," Doi added.
The key to making sesame into a viable export earner would be to plant seed whose oil content is at least 52 percent. But this type is generally not found in Sri Lanka.
The solution, as cooperative development officials see it, is to cultivate locally a high oil-content foreign seed. According to the experts, sesame is magical because it regenerates itself. When re-planted it multiplies itself by 100.
JICA, together with the Ministry of Cooperative Development (MOCD), have been experimenting in recent months with small quantities of a Chinese variety of sesame obtained from an unnamed Japanese trading firm.
"When you plant 200 grams of sesame, you will produce 20 kilos of seed," Doi said. "Then when you re-plant these 20 kilos, you end up with 2000 kilos, and so on."
The first 75-day crop will be harvested between the end of August and early September, cooperative development officials said. They were pleased with the results they had seen so far. A lab test done in Japan on a sesame sample taken from Dambulla had revealed an oil content of 56.3 percent.
To Doi, the greatest challenge to launching sesame exports from Sri Lankan lies in persuading farmers that they will receive a fixed price for sesame, a commodity whose value on the international market is open to fluctuation.
To this end, JICA and MOCD are working through the offices of MarkFed (the National Cooperative Marketing Federation) to establish a sesame price stablising mechanism that they hope to have up-and-running by 1998.
"Most farmers are anxious about getting a stable price," Doi said.
He briefly explained how this "fund" would work.
Farmers would be guaranteed a set price for sesame no matter what the international market conditions. The fund would be topped-up by skimming-off a percentage of profits from overseas sales. And, in the event that the international benchmark for sesame took a dip, farmers would be paid compensation out of the fund.
The Young Asia Television (YA TV) last week sucessfully launched its programmes in India for the first time on the state-run Dooradharshan 2 (DD2) Metro Channel. The YA TV which is already catching up popularity among the young people in Sri Lanka tied up with DD2, for the telecast of programmes on prime time on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Two 26-minute programmes namely 'The YA Cafe' and 'Nature Calls' are now on air starting at 7.30 p.m. Arne Fjortoft, President of YA TV, addressing a press briefing early this week said that they are geared to produce the best of documentaries, using youth talent. "We want to set our own examples without aping the westerners," he said adding that they hope to export their productions to Europe and the Americas. YA TV presently has a large number of producers with an average age of twenty five. "We insist on one-man producers who are required to interview, write the scripts, edit, mix the sounds, and do everything possible, saving the complication generally involved with a team of producers," he said.
The channel strictly adheres to the guidelines of broadcasting in Asia as specified by the Asian Broadcasting Union on the Guidelines for Trans National Broadcasters in the Asia Pacific region. The Colombo based YA TV which caters to a wide audience of young people in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia offers seven regular programmes titled 'Nature Calls'- dealing on environmental issues in Asia, 'YA Cafe' - on lifestyles and fashion, 'Space-to-Let' - on womens issues, 'I-Zone'- which deals with controversial news topics about sexuality, human rights, the drug trade and neglected people, 'YA-Tribe'- which celebrates the diverse cultures that make up Asia, 'Young Out Look'- news examining the stories behind headlines from an Asian Youth perspective, and 'View to Tell'- bringing inspiring stories to life in docu-drama form.
YA TV is the first Sri Lankan operation to export English TV programmes. Test marketing of the programmes are already on air in Nepal, and in Thailand. The YA TV from January 1998 will be on internet and within the next two years it hopes to have a YA TV satellite for the South Asia covering the SAARC countries, which has a viewership of 10 million persons.
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