Central Bank Governor outlines drastic changes
Sri Lanka needs to open up to the world and engage competitively for its future progress and adopt technology for ease of doing business and improve the country’s attractiveness, the country’s top financial regulator said on Tuesday.
Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe speaking at the discussion held on Sri Lanka Internet Day 2022 at the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday, said: “If you are not afraid of being competitive then you don’t have to be against opening up.” The event was organised by FITIS.
He noted that from the Central Bank’s point of view they are basically open and obtaining expert consultation and from the country’s point of view “we too need to open up all other sectors as well”.
The Governor pointed out that with inflation expected to turn around he was confident of the economic restructuring process that would ensure the country could regain its stability.
The Governor explained that one of the major imbalances in Sri Lanka was the lack of proper coordination of the fiscal and monetary policies. “If the government is running huge fiscal deficits then that will have an impact on the implementation of the monetary policy as a result even though the Central Bank is independent they cannot act without looking at the fiscal policy.”
The country’s debts have built up over a period of time that has created a large external account balance, he noted.
Moreover, he pointed out that they need to introduce a simpler system in carrying out some of the basic banking transactions and the delay in this whole process is due to the lack of proper digital KYC (Know Your Customer information).
The digital NIC and the digital KYC is an enabler and the system is currently moving in this direction, he pointed out for which they needed to have the required infrastructure in place. This would mean that the passport, NIC and taxes will have to be connected to the banking system in order to carry out things in seconds.
FITIS President Channa De Silva speaking on the occasion said that today there are 5 billion people using the Internet daily.
Sri Lanka needs to train a larger sector in its student population to take on the ICT sector, he noted.