Our graduates lack entrepreneurship

Prabath Fonseka Chairman/ MD Agro Nutrition (Pvt) Limited:

Hiran H.Senewiratne

The younger generation in this country is interested in enhancing knowledge but not bothered about how to apply that acquired knowledge into practice, Chairman/ Managing Director Agro Nutrition (Pvt) Limited Prabath Fonseka said.

He said Sri Lanka has a large number of agriculture graduates but most of them are not physically involved in agriculture work. This is one the issues encountered by the country because they were the very people who take decisions in the local agriculture sector.

Fonseka said our graduates lack the entrepreneurship as they always look for easy jobs. Sri Lanka has all the potential to pose as one of the leading agricultural countries in the region.

“Sri Lanka’s primary education is not focusing to develop the character of the child and only focus on knowledge building. This has somewhat prevented the creation of an entrepreneur culture in the country like developed countries in the world. In the Western World education focuses more on character building which means to take risk, help to make creative thinking and doing projects from very young age which help them to create a strong entrepreneur culture among the people, Fonseka said.

Q: What do you think of the growth in Sri Lankan veterinary premixes, pharmaceuticals, feed additives and aquaculture feeds sector?

As an exporter and a manufacturer of veterinary premixes, pharmaceuticals products, I have noticed that the industry as a whole did not grow well in the last few years due to the reduction of the buying power of the people in the country. Therefore, this industry is maintaining the business at a break even level. Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia have shown a 10 per cent and 20 per cent respective growth. I think the industry has a lot of potential to grow if the respective authorities may more attention to this area.

Q: You were one of the few business personnel who were involved in the export and manufacture of these products in the country. What prompted you to get into this business?

I am the first veterinary and feed additives and aquaculture businessperson to enter into the export business. I found that we have the competencies and the potential to compete with countries like India and Malaysia because we have the advantage of cheap labour and packaging. We manufacture aquaculture feeds for the local market and now we export to several countries as well. We also manufacture a series of products for the animal husbandry industry in Sri Lanka.

Q: As a decision-maker of a company how would you advice the decision-makers in the country?

 This country rewards only public servants. Sometimes they don’t know the real problem. Most of the time they try to resolve disputes without consulting private sector people. When it comes to national issues, public sector officials have to work in consultation with the private sector to resolve burning problems.

Private sector people are brilliant and professional and the Government must recognise them when taking decisions on major national issues. Further, most of the Government enterprises running at a loss could inject private sector professionals into the Government entities. Normally private sector entities add value and new technology to the country. If all get together and work we could resolve most of the problems in the country.

Q: You always say that our public service is not competitive and professional enough. Why is that?

Our working population is 5.5 million out of which 1.2 million are Government servants.

Therefore, our public service is huge with the highest per capita Government servants in the region. Therefore four private sector people maintain one public servant.

Q: High interest rates, inflation and the global financial crisis have affected the business community to carry on business. How would you look at these issues?

Sri Lanka has a small production sector and a large service sector. The service sector takes out a big chunk off the manufacturing sector. The only alternative is to increase the production and the productivity in the manufacturing and production sector in the country.

Q: What is your future plan?

I am going to start up a functional and health food company called Cerestar (Pvt) Limited. Today people eat food with harmful chemical and additives. My mission is to form a food company for Sri Lankans, which will be helpful to the people in the country.

Q: Our cattle and poultry industry is not growing as fast as other countries in the region. What is the reason for that?

I would say that misconception and the baseless propaganda by some have negatively impacted on the local industry. I would like to come out with a classic example where the misconception on egg consumption where it causes heart aliments which is a misconception. It has no direct relationship for that but only a myth. Egg is good for human consumption, which has all the nutritional values for the human being. We just import certain products such as salmon and dry fish without developing the local sectors like poultry, dairy, fishing and cattle industries.

Q: You won the Silver medal for the medium size business category at the recently held NCE awards. What is the secret behind your success?

I always depend on self-funding. I don’t take big bank loans. I run with my own financing. I have employed professionals and skilled workers to run the business. On the other hand I have no idea of listing my company in the Colombo Stock Exchange as I have noticed that most of the public quoted companies are not running in an efficient manner. As an owner of my company, I work with a lot of love and care to my organisation.

Q: What is your philosophy in life?

I always believe in gratitude. We must not be a burden to the country and society. I always think simple and make complicated things simple.

Profile

Name-: Prabath Fonseka

Schools attended : Mahanama College and Thurstan College

Education : Member of the Institute of Chemistry

Civil status : Married, has two children

Current position : Chairman/ Managing Director Agro Nutrition (Pvt) Limited.