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By Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the oldest trade chamber in Sri Lanka, has proposed to the Government that the four major state banks- the Bank of Ceylon, the People's Bank, the National Savings Bank the State Mortgage and Investment Bank and the Housing Development and Finance Corporation be partially divested in a bid to achieve efficiency and productivity.

"What we advocate is transparency accountability in the restructuring of these state banks and it will certainly help more stake holders- the Government, the depositors, borrowers and very specially the employees and it will also deepen the stock market," Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chandra Jayaratne told the Daily News in an interview yesterday.

This will lead to a well governed financial services sector, he said.

This development is a sequel to the just concluded Development Forum where over 80 delegates representing 39 donor concerns were present in Colombo to get an idea of the UNF Government's economic policies, he said.

The Chamber has also proposed to the Government to publish policy frameworks early in terms of privatisation and liberalisation and that to be prior to Budget 2003, and issue operating guidelines. The deepening of the Colombo Stock Exchange has also received the attention of Commerce in its recommendations to the Government, Mr. Jayaratne said.

These proposals which come as a sequel to the Development Forum, also wants the Government to consider the option of looking at the private companies as managers to state institutions so that they could perform more effectively. The Chamber wants the Government to make specific proposals so that a network partnership with the private sector could be worked out.

Among the proposals that the Chamber covers is the facilitation of e -governance so that all data of land and other transactions and Customs, payment of fees could be managed electronically.

The Chamber has also called upon the Government to facilitate the EPF and ETF funds to be established in private sector hands so that the private sector investment needs be met and so that benchmark portfolios could be managed, Mr. Jayaratne said.

The CCC has also proposed to the Government to publish the fiscal management in the first half of the year

We have told the Government of looking at options of involving the private sector in implementing the poverty reduction strategy and the Relief, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation strategy, he said.

In the areas of management of the National Debt which is high as the GDP today, there have to be improvements so that there is transparency so that the trade chambers will be aware of the short term and the long term debt payment schemes of the Government. This will spell out the yield curves which will give stability to yield curves which will make interest rates stable, he said.

If all these strategies are to work, civil societies should also be made to join the Government and there should be an effective line of communication and that too is proposed to the Government.

The CCC has told the Government to bare the details of the National Employment Policy as well, he said.

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