Legendary corporate leaders share leadership insights with opposition MPs

‘Learn from President’s leadership style’ HNB Chairman tells UNP

By Azhar Razak
Two of Sri Lanka’s veteran corporate leaders, who are currently heading two listed private conglomerates, shared some valuable insights on leadership and management with some young MPs from Sri Lanka’s main opposition party.

Hatton National Bank chairman Rienzie T Wijetilleka said last week that the UNP leader has much to learn from the President’s leadership style which involves keeping everyone together at difficult times, critically reviewing past performance, planning well ahead, taking swift but calculated decisions and motivating people.

“We, at the bank, have to do a periodical review of performance of the leadership as a basic fundamental requirement. Has a similar thing been done in the past 17 years to the UNP,” he queried suggesting that a change in leadership is critical for the party to move forward.

He pointed out that the UNP has lost about 60-65 percent of the votes of the Sinhala Buddhist majority under the current leadership and was being currently projected as a party for the minority.
 

“This is in sharp contrast to how the party in the past had won the hearts of the majority by voicing the interests of every community in the society,” he highlighted.
To add further woes to the party, he said the President has, on the other hand, successfully and tactfully brought about both socialist and capitalist economic policies in the Budget 2011 creating a severe challenge to the opposition.
 

“On top of that, there is also a sense of stability that has been brought about to the present state of economy in terms of inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves thus reducing the scope for opposition to challenge,” he mentioned.
United Motors Lanka chairman Ranjith Fernando, speaking on the occasion, meanwhile, took a critical perspective of the government’s approach towards the private sector and questioned the independence of the legal system today.
 

He specifically referred to the judgment delivered in the recent case pertaining to former UNP MP A R M Cader, who is currently on the government side and compared with the case relating to Sri Lanka’s former army commander Sarath Fonseka.

Outlining emerging trends in the economic perspective, Fernando said that although the government is trying hard to portray itself as supportive of capitalism, it is essentially a socialist due to its recent actions.
 

“Look at the reversals of privatisations that have taken place in the recent past. Price controls have come in and SME banks are no more. According to recent financials, the state run Lankaputhra Bank is presently incurring a Non Performing Loan (NPL) percentage of 50 percent,” he said.
 

“If you ask the bankers, they will tell you that the moment you have a five percent NPL you become scared and when that reaches 8 percent it is catastrophic,” he outlined.
Elaborating his point further, he said the government has recently announced it will not allow any private sector firms to set up mini-hydro power firms and will run them by itself.
 

“Thousands of mini hydro projects are possible to be taken up by the private sector. Look at the airline industry as well and take India as an example on how many domestic private airlines are being run while in Sri Lanka the government has allowed the Sri Lanka Air Force aircrafts to play monopoly,” he questioned.
 

He also queried on the decision made by the government to recruit a further 12,500 graduates to the public sector when it is already running one of the largest public worker payroll database of 1.8 million.

Per capita income gimmick
 

Fernando, on the other hand, blasted the Central Bank authorities of fooling the public by reporting GDP per capita numbers in dollar terms which he says should be revealed in Sri Lanka Rupee terms, which would then represent the realistic picture.
 

“What they say is the per capita income which was at US $ 300 in 1977 only improved to US $1,000 by 2004 and then US$ 2,000 in 2009.”
 

“However, if these numbers are converted into Rupees at the prevalent exchange rates US $ 300 would have been Rs. 2,661 (at Rs 8.87 per 1 USD) in 1977 and then Rs97,500 (at Rs. 97.5 per 1 USD) and Rs 228,000 (at Rs114 per 1 USD) in 2009,” he said.
 

“Therefore, if they claim that it has doubled from 2004 to 2009 even in Rupee terms, one can claim that per capita income has increased by 3,564 percent in the 27 years from 1977 to 2004,” he pointed out saying that this a gimmick played by the Central Bank to fool the public.
 

He said that the Central Bank has increased the per capita income calculation (GDP over population) in dollar terms by artificially appreciating the Rupee.
 

He further outlined that exports have dropped for the first time in many years in 2009 recording a negative growth and the country was heading towards an economic disaster with a Balance of Payment crisis that is yet to come.
 

The two corporate leaders were speaking at a panel discussion held last week by the Independent Professionals Forum under the theme ‘Emerging Economic and Political Trends in Sri Lanka’. Others on the panel included Justin Meegoda, Dr Darin Gunasekara, Maithree Gunaratne, and Chamindra Ediriwickrema.
 

UNP MPs who attended the discussion were Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Gayantha Karunatilleka, Buddhika Sampath, Ranjith Maddumabandara and Rosy Senanayake.
The much awaited Annual Convention of the ‘Grand Old Party’ is scheduled to be held today.

http://www.thebottomline.lk/2010/12/12/biz_feature4.html

People who read this post also read :