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| Tuesday, 3 February 2004 |
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Lanka number one in SAARC economic freedom listing By Shirajiv Sirimane Sri Lanka has been placed number one in the SAARC listing of Economic Freedom according to the latest report of the Economic Freedom of the world report. The country's world placing is at 64. According to Regional Director, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Foundation, Hubertus von Welck, who was a guest speaker at the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Investment Summit, in Colombo last Saturday, this is a plus point for the nation to attract investors. "Sri Lanka has emerged as the most progressive and forward-looking country in the SAARC and is an example for others to learn from," he said. Economic freedom is the extent to which one can pursue economic activity without interference from government and is built upon personal choice, voluntary exchange, the right to keep what you earn, and the security of your property rights. This report has considered placing Sri Lanka at the top of the SAARC region in Economic Freedom. The report has placed India at the 73rd position, Nepal 89th, Bangladesh 91st and Pakistan 101st. No data has been given for Bhutan and Maldives. However, he said that there is quite a lot of ground to be covered to close up on the top two of the group, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung has cooperated with the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote open markets in the region since the inception of SCCI. The Foundation (Stiftung) is a German based, non-profit organisation, promoting ideas of liberty and individual freedom all around the world. "I also feel that this is the right time for the private sector of all the member countries to come together as a unified organisation, under the banner of SCCI, to take on issues of increasing trade and investments in the region," he said. In order to achieve the common objective of regional economic cooperation, FNSt and SCCI have worked together on a number of issues. These range from movement of goods and services, commercial arbitration in SAARC, programs on SAPTA, SAFTA, awareness building on WTO issues and have together played a key role to suggest key policy changes to open the economic framework of the region. South Asia with potentially large markets (has a quarter of the world's population), cheap labour and abundant availability of resources is a region that is attractive for any business organisation looking for expansion. "I know that the Sri Lankan government takes Hong Kong and Singapore as an economic role model for Sri Lanka. I would fully agree with that, if political freedom were included as the basic political rights for citizens are not very strong in these two entities. The political and economic stability and greater openness are essential conditions to attract foreign investments. Due to these reasons, China has been attracting huge foreign investments over the years. South Asia will have to accept this as a challenge and come out with considerable policy changes in order to compete with China. "However, I would like to sound a note of caution: I am not sure if we will not see in the future quite drastic changes in China due to the lack of political freedom. In this field South Asia is more advanced," he said. The successful implementation of a Free Trade Area (SAFTA) would be a sure sign to increase investments in the SAARC region. SCCI will have an important role to play to prepare the grounds. He said with foreign investment coming any country would have a leap in economic growth, which would contribute to poverty reduction. The ability to attract investments is a good measure to judge how open and integrated a country is in the modern economy. This is possible through a coordinated and comprehensive strategy of all the member countries of SAARC. The efforts of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) ought to be lauded in their pursuit to alleviate poverty and increase the economic growth of the region. SAARC, a populous region of the world offers an abundant labour force and has ample resources. All it requires now is the political will to make SAARC a prosperous region. The seventh global economic freedom report by James Gwartney and Robert Lawson, ranks 123 nations on the most recent year for which data are available. The first Economic Freedom of the World Report, published in 1996, was the result of a decade of research by more than 100 leading scholars, including several Nobel Laureates, in a broad range of fields, from economics to political science and from law to philosophy. |
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