Lankan Minister proposes innovationdriven economy instead of present leisure-andentertainment economy

The need to leap-frog straightaway to the third stage of an innovation-driven economic growth as its dominant strategy for growth from the present leisure-and-entertainment economy has been emphasised by the Minister of Technology and Research, Patali Champika Ranawaka, when he delivered the keynote address at the inauguration of the 7th Biennial Sri Lanka Conference on Science and Technology on Monday.

The countrywide expansion of a leisure-andentertainment economy has led to a new social crisis and a critical dialogue has emerged in society on corruption and good governance, he said, adding that the erosion of confidence of the society at large has already become an impediment to the development of social capital necessary for economic growth.

Addressing a large gathering of scientists intellectuals, professionals and business leaders, Minister Ranawaka noted that the literally 'poisonous' environment, that has been brought about by the haphazard ad-hoc process of industrialisation, with increasingly adverse implications on food production and health, etc, has deteriorated to a point of threatening the country's very civilization, with its share of consequences on the economy in the process.

Evaluation of these factors from an economic perspective reveals that the country is gradually being ensnared in what is known as the middle income trap, he added.

Therefore, he stressed the need of introducing certain structural changes in economic and finance policies, socio-political policies and education policies.

With an ambitious aim of avoiding middle income trap, brain drain, wide income gap between the rich and poor and the balance of payment crisis, the Ministry of Technology and Research has devised a National Research and Development (R&D) Investment plan to foster scientific innovation and support the Sri Lankan economy and moves into higher value-added production, he revealed.

"The future of sustainable development that all of us aspire for the nation will not just dawn upon us and both the will as well as the capability to guide Sri Lanka towards the future we want, are with us," he said.

Sri Lanka, which relied on the first strategy of using cheaper factors of production in the process of its graduation from a poor country to the status of a lower middle income country, has now reached the limiting point of this strategy, and therefore, the country's future trajectory of growth should sequentially progress initially through the efficiency driven stage, eventually to the innovation driven stage.

Although absolute poverty has been brought under control, disparity in income distribution continues to widen. Inadequacy of capital investments by the government and issues over capital investments as to whether they are on prudent areas of national priority have raised serious concerns, he observed.

Sri Lanka is a country that sustained multiple rebellions and uprisings. In the meantime, the risk of collapse of ecological systems due to degradation of water, soil, air and bio species should not at all be underestimated.

Therefore, the triple principles of economic policy, strategy or action plans that should act as the pillars of a sustainable future, should be - sustainable economic development, sustainable social development and sustainable environmental development, he disclosed.

In this context, the Ministry has identified ten priority areas for intervention during the next five years from 2015 to 2020. They are; water, food, health, housing, energy, garments, minerals, knowledge services, fundamental sciences and technologies, and environment.

It has also identified ten strategic interventions including policy planning, research, innovations, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, indigenous knowledge, science and technology infrastructure, skills development, marketing and promotion.

Since Independence in 1948 there had been many inspirational women in the history of Sri Lanka. Women had been driving the transformation of many famous companies during the 60’s and 70’s. One of the messages from the Commonwealth Heads of General Meeting (CHOGM) Business Forum held in Colombo last year was that Sri Lanka’s strategic location is a good opportunity for women entrepreneurship, said Arif Zaman, Advisor South Asia, Corporate Governance and Commonwealth Business Women Network (CBW) Commonwealth Business Council.

He made this comment to the Business Times on the sidelines of the launch of the Commonwealth Women Entrepreneur Awards held at the Kingsbury in Colombo last week. “The coun-