Lankan businessmen are “headless chickens”
Sri Lanka’s businessmen are like “headless chickens” running to politicians to obtain support for their ventures, Shipper’s Council Chairman Chrisso De Mel said on Monday.
Addressing the post-business session of the Shipper’s Council AGM in Colombo, he said that business leaders were today found to be running to political leaders like “headless chickens” and noted that if they tango with them he (politician)’s a good man and if not then he’s corrupt.
Mr. De Mel pointed out that the current political situation in the country was not helping the economy move forward.
“Sri Lanka must be willing to take stock and move forward,” he said adding that while some may have the best ideas yet without discipline they would not be able to forge ahead.
The shipping industry, the Chairman noted had gone through a phenomenal year in 2017 in promoting Sri Lanka.
Mr. De Mel wanted the government to stick to their timeline of completing and implementing the projects that they had commenced like the National Export Strategy ( NES) and the trade information portal.
State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne, chief guest on the occasion, spoke of the need to move ahead with the times and in effect asked the shipping industry to open up to liberalisation of the sector.
He explained that liberalisation had worked in other countries and that it had in fact worked within Sri Lanka in the hotel and telecommunication sectors.
“Your industry has to face up to competition and foreign participation becomes a necessity in an integrated world,” he said.
He pointed out that Sri Lanka needed to evolve and go beyond its present status of a key transshipment hub and engage in more value addition.
Minister Wickramaratne said that the country had not progressed since the past 30 years and in this respect, he believes that a number of reforms need to be carried out and insisted that the government was ready to do so for the betterment of the economy. These would be in the areas of education, entrepreneurship and shipping.
Technology is a key driver of business today and e-commerce is driving trade and creating new business flows that did not exist before, HSBC’s Head of Trade and Finance Receivables Ajay Sharma said.
He noted the nature of trade flows had changed and explained that a single transaction or approval could be obtained within a day, something which could have taken a period of at least four days by adopting the digital systems.
As trade volumes continue to grow, the growth in Asia and emerging markets is expected to drive the economy, Mr. Sharma said.
Moreover, he spoke of the rise in protectionism among most markets and also highlighted the new trading patterns with the signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement ( TPP) even without the US being a party to it and also noted the initiation of the Belt and Road Initiative that is progressing.