Ranil warns govt on remittance dependency

Ranil Wickremasinghe

Leader of the House and Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva says that although Sri Lanka’s private sector has done very well in certain areas in the past, they lagged behind in areas such as social responsibility where they could play a wider role in helping the government reduce income inequality and human resource development.

Addressing corporate leaders at the Business Today Top 25 Awards ceremony held at the Colombo Hilton last week, the Minister noted that with the war being over, the island now faces a bigger challenge on how it could push the poor people, who are below the poverty line, to the middle income group.

“The private sector has a greater responsibility to ensure this gap is not widened. It becomes more and more close and push these people to the middle income level. That is the first social responsibility we expect from you all. Because you have the capacity, you have the knowledge, you have the professionalism to embark on your ventures and do that,” Minister de Silva, who was the Chief Guest at the event advocated.
Pointing out the gravity of the disparity in numbers, the Minister said that it was recently revealed in Parliament that in 2012 the crème of the society, the wealthiest persons in the island had consumed a whopping Rs.4,200 billion of the country’s national income compared to the 20% of the poorest people who consumed a mere Rs.312 billion.

“So you see the disparity. This is where the social unrest will occur,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe, who graced the occasion as the Guest of Honor, cautioned on the repercussions the country could face through its increased reliance on foreign remittances as the major exchange earner.
“Its first impact that I realized in 1990 during the first Gulf War as Kuwait was invaded and hundreds and thousands of our workers came back, we found it difficult to replace the foreign remittances and President Premadasa sent me with Dr. A. S. Jayawardena to Japan to speak to the Japanese Government on getting additional aid to bridge over the difficult times and we thank the Government of Japan for the assistance they gave,” he said adding that the World Bank warned somewhere about 2005 that excellent performances of remittances contributed to the complacency in addressing low productive growth.

  “When you look at the structure of Sri Lanka’s economy and look at the manufacturing, there has been no major change up till today. Now you find textiles, garments and apparels dominate the manufacturing sector. Then food and beverages and chemical that is the bulk. That is where we are. Where are the electrical appliances? Where are the manufacturing automotive components? Where are the other goods that you are manufacturing? Where are they? That’s not here. We are still in the same place. There are many reasons given. But the fact is that we are still in the same place,” he noted.

Highlighting the need to draw a ten year program, a roadmap, to leapfrog to the appropriate stage, Wickremasinghe advised the business leaders to look at markets more proactively.
“The markets of the world are changing. But you have to make the world a market. And you can do that in many ways. You may go for products like apparels where we are big players or you can go for niche markets, like some of you are doing. Whether you are sending out Dilmah tea, or running hotels in different parts of the world, running business, many of you are doing some small niche market venture, but look at it and today with all the new technology available, nanotechnology, biotechnology you name it, we can get there. So let us take, look at what is needed in the next twenty years. Where do you want to go 20 years since? Look at their technology and how we go. And plan for the first ten years. If you make the first ten years, you next ten years and above will be no problem at all,” he pointed out.
- See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/22583-minister-urges-private-sector-to-be-more-socially-responsible.html#sthash.iuJnIoHs.dpuf

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