Private Sector potential not utilised:

Meaningful public private partnership

It is shameful for this country not to achieve desired progress and development, even after 60 years of Independence and the retardation could be attributed to petty politics that has been prevalent in Sri Lanka said Karu Jayasuriya, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs, at the Key Person's Forum conducted by the Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED), a project of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) and Friedrich Naumann Stifftung (FNSt).

The Forum was held at Trans Asia Hotel and Jayasuriya spoke on "Making Public -Private Partnership meaningful - Strategy of the Government".

He said that he has long been associated with the private sector and while appreciating the role played by the private sector, he conceded that the private sector was corrupt and in his ministry he was able to infuse efficiency which would be taken as a role model to be emulated by the public sector.

Looking at the pre and post Independence period of this country, the public sector was disciplined and moral and at that time Sri Lanka's public sector was one of the best in Asia.

When the British left this country they left behind a good highway network and a railway system and the private sector at that time served mostly for the convenience of the Europeans. The private sector performance at that time was very active but the indigenous private sector was not that active.

Since Independence the National Chamber of Commerce was established to look after the indigenous business and to compete with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

Successive governments talked about the private sector and considered it as the engine of growth. The private sector has been respectable and playing a meaningful role in the economy of the country. But he said that after 60 years of Independence the country has not achieved much other than what was left over by the British.

For that we should be ashamed of. To counter the high cost of electricity the coal power plant was planned in 1992. It was very recently the government was able to at least start with the coal power project.

He said that another factor for the retardation of development could be attributed to not utilising the full potential of the private sector.

He said that so much of private sector capabilities were ignored.

The public sector in Sri Lanka is dynamic and has been growing despite many difficulties. In some areas like providing services and garments the private sector has done extremely well.

They are operating very successfully and are even expanding to the other parts of the globe. Though some of these private sector businesses are not known in the country, international business people talk about the Sri Lankan private sector successes, he said.

He further stated that comparatively, post Independence public sector has declined with indiscipline and inefficiency which are attributable for the politicisation of the whole administrative system.

Somewhere in the 90's and early 2000 all parties together moved the 17th amendment and were able to agree for some form of reforms, such as the setting up of the Constitutional Council which was non-political, non-racial and non-religious.

It functioned smoothly, until the end of its first term. Then, a new Constitutional Council was not set up, due to some shortcomings.

Jayasuriya appreciated the support given by the FNSt in reform activities.