Biz community: Getting back on track
Sri Lanka’s new leadership will have to address several negative inheritances of the previous regime by introducing consistent policies to achieve strong and sustainable growth, business leaders suggested.
Business leaders anticipate several challenges in the short and medium terms while economic reforms will come at considerable cost, they emphasised.
The new administration with populist tendencies could affect the economy, if the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and bureaucrats fail to keep a watchful eye on the mounting debt, the budget deficit and mitigate external shocks, several leading business leaders in the country said.
The Chamber of Commerce, while congratulating the new President, in a statement expressed the hope that “he will, in steering the future of our nation, deliver on his vision to accelerate inclusive economic growth while also finding sustainable solutions to the most significant challenges before us”.
President of National Chamber of Commerce Asela de Livera told the Business Times that the short and medium priorities of the new President are to harness new technologies to increase
value addition in exports and manufacturing, focusing on skilled labour, and create a knowledge- based and technology-focused economy.
The President should also pay special attention on modernising agriculture, private sector and SME development, promoting innovation, research and development, attracting local and foreign investments, removal of red tape and better management of state resources.
Some of these areas were included in the President’s election manifesto he said adding that the business community is expecting from him to fulfill those pledges for the benefit of the people. Mr. De Livera was of the view that the new administration will pay attention to helping entrepreneurs to keep the production cost as low as possible so that their products would be competitive in the international market.
Managing Director, DSI Samson Group ( Pvt) Ltd, Kulathunga Rajapaksa, suggested to the President to immediately suspend the granting of permission to foreigners to enter into retail business in Sri Lanka as it has not attracted considerable foreign investment.
SMEs should be exempted from all taxes imposing a threshold on their turnover, he said, adding that it is essential to abolish the present system of granting tax exemption for exporters in accordance with their volume of exports.
Mr. Rajapaksa also proposed the integration of VAT and NBT and to implement the 8 per cent VAT system.
Executive Chairman/ Managing Director Epic Technology Group Dr. Nayana Dehigama said the government should do away with the present practice of exporting mineral sands without value addition and set up joint ventures with foreign collaboration for the processing of mineral sands adding value to it.
The need of the hour is decisive leadership not based on politics but national needs to meet the debt servicing obligations and revive the economy and tackle massive economic challenges in 2020. Experts and professionals should be appointed to handle different segments of the economy, and they should be made accountable for their actions in fulfilling their official duties, he added.
There is an urgent need to establish a special commission with powers to handle such arbitrary actions and it will help to create an administrative structure headed by permanent secretaries like the good old days, he pointed out.