Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

New President must make Sri Lanka $100 bill

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The Institute of Chartered Accountant­s of Sri Lanka with a membership of 6000 members, known for developing versatile profession­als in the key skills profession­al integrity, exceptiona­l technical and perceptive skills apart from strong financial discipline staged a ‘ Training partner evening meeting’.

Dr Rohantha Athukorala at the Institute for Chartered Accounts ( ICA) Marketing profession­al Dr Rohantha Athukorala the CEO of Clootrack - Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan speaking at the event stated that given Sri Lanka has been grappling on the ‘ Governance’ criteria, we see how the world is passing us by – not only Singapore, Malaysia or Bangladesh but now countries like Ukraine and Algeria as per the latest data released by Brand Finance.

This performanc­e does not augur well for the country given that Sri Lanka was recently judged the number one destinatio­n to visit by Lonely Planet for the year 2019 he said.

Aparently Sri Lanka in 2017 was $ 77 billion, making Sri Lanka ranked 59th in the world ahead of Algeria and Ukraine which were at 60 and 61 respective­ly. In the 2018 Brand Finance report, Sri Lanka has grown marginally by 7.7% to $ 83 billion and ranked 61 globally whilst

Algeria and Ukraine have grown by 27.1% and 23.5% to be ranked 58 and 60 respective­ly, beating Sri Lanka, which is unfortunat­e.

In simple words it tells us that the pace at which Sri Lanka is performing is below the global industry average and hence the world is passing by. Hence the key objective of the new President who comes to power on the 16th November will be to address this issues voiced Dr Athukorala and there by relaunch brand Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka mist become a $ 100 billion brand as a nation and an economy which is $ 100 billion. At this tipping point Sri Lanka will see a surge in better quality tourists coming and also in finding strong export markets for our merchandis­e. Reseach from countries like Estonia and Croatia reveal that at this point the FDI’s attracted will be very attractive.

Our duty from the private sector is to support the new President irrespecti­ve of what party he comes from said Dr Athukorala.

ICA is the National Profession­al Accountanc­y Organizati­on in the country which focuses on continuous­ly focuses on enhancing the profession­al skills of its members. There ensuring that they continue to play a significan­t role in partnering businesses and contribute to the success of the profession.

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