Economic challenges for post war Sri Lanka

Rohantha ATHUKORALA

We have to make Sri Lanka known to be the nation that beat terrorism and now, the economic tiger of Asia. Currently many are talking positive of Sri Lanka but this will last only for two years the most. Thereafter, another country will become the buzz nation in the world stage. We must make the best of it now.

Last week at the inaugural session of the first parliament took place and it was great to see so many young faces in the system.

The enthusiasm of the young members of parliament gave me hope that Sri Lanka was poised for a 8-10 percent GDP growth in the years to come. All that was needed was for us support the developmental agenda.

The challenge

Whilst being very optimistic, the reality is that the challenges we are up against are gigantic in nature and unless the private and public sectors work in synergy, we will not be able to do justice to the hype that surrounds the country.

From the data that has been released by the Central Bank in the month of January, imports have shot up by 70.1 percent to 1160.9 million dollars while exports has dipped by 3.9 percent to 472 million dollars which not very healthy. The trade gap has ballooned to 688.9 million dollars from 191.5 million dollars the year before. What's worrying is the declining industrial exports by 16.9 million dollars with textiles and garments dipping by 27.8 percent which indicates that urgent action is required.

Election best practices

The need of the hour for Sri Lanka is a robust and sharp development program on a strategic footing. The good news is that all the policy makers who took oaths last week to form the new Government has publicly demonstrated the new competitive culture that is required to succeed.

Hence, all that is required is to ensure that an enabling environment exists so that together with the support of the private sector this same behaviour demonstrated at the elections can be extended to driving the economy. If this becomes a reality, I strongly feel Sri Lanka is not far away from being the 'Miracle of Asia'. Let me capture the best practices we witnessed at the elections and why the economy needs to be run just like the elections so that we as a nation can be the new economic tiger of Asia.

Best brains

A key feature of the last elections was that competition was so entrenched that there was no room for a back of the envelop strategy to be implemented. Hence, many politicians hired professional marketeers and advertising agencies to conceptualize and implement the campaign. The manner the campaign rolled out on media and how the masses responded demonstrated the professionalism which is commendable. Scientific techniques were also used by some candidates to evaluate the effectiveness of the communication with concepts like awareness and top of the mind awareness (TOM) so that voter behaviour can be tracked and corrective action taken if need be.

What is now required is that similar behaviour to be extended by the same policy makers in the running of the economy. The best brains must be picked for strategy development from each sector so that the most relevant game plan can be orchestrated. The National Council For Economic Development (NCED) was a very good model that existed in the country at one time. Policy making and evaluation was done by the top six private sector and public sector officials under the mandate of the Presidential Secretariat. A similar model can be used so that a 'home grown developmental model' will come into play. This is some times called a 'National Committee on economic development in some countries.

The private sector must also respect that being politically right is also very important, in today's day and age. As history has proved in South Asia, a developmental model based only on an economic developmental agenda has resulted in the government getting kicked out. It happened in Sri Lanka in 2004 and in India in 2006. Hence we must be sensitive that in our part of the world, community development is equally important together to be practiced with a very more urban approach. Hence if this balance is not maintained in Sri Lanka, we will lose the opportunity to grow even after winning a record 144 seats in the new parliament.

Strong game plan

Going back to the best practices in the last elections, we saw that the candidates that had a sharp strategy came through well at the elections.

We need to extend same in the economic development agenda too. This requires discipline and the ability of focusing on a few key priorities that will generate the best results.

For example, if we take the tourism sector as a case in point, the focus should be how do we build more hotel rooms in the country, given that the room current capacity even at a 100 percent occupancy can attract only a 760,000 visitors into the country.

We also require a competitive financing model for the private sector to use the credit structure of the banking system. If this is not conceptualized and launched we will be up against the project being not be financially viable.

If take the tea industry as a case in point, we need to address the supply chain issues in the industry like re-planting, fertilizer applications, lease period of the privatized tea sector to be extended whilst from a demand side, driving home the unique positioning of Ozone friendly ethically manufactured tea proposition are some of the strategies that can be pursued.

This needs to be supported by a multi-barrel dollar marketing budget if we are serious of the development of this noble industry. Currently the pivotal promotions agency for tea- the Sri Lanka Tea Board is on survival mode to be very specific with responsibility.

Passionate delivery

If we analyze the most successful candidates of the general elections, a key feature that stands out is the passionate delivery of activity at the ground end. Be it the house to house leaflet operation or the reminder telephone campaign it was done with a lot of passion. We need to extend this into the detail dynamics when implementing the economic development initiatives.

This is especially a tough task given the Financial Regulations (FR's) and the Administrative Regulations (AR's) that come in to play, but it has to be worked around. If not, all the beautiful strategy documents will only collect dust just like what has been before. A key point that needs to be highlighted is the millions of cabinet appointed committee reports that keep getting collected over time. This must ideally be curtailed and more emphasis given for driving passionate implementation just like the elections.

If I am to take some national projects that I was personally involved in Sri Lanka where passionate delivery was seen, one of them was the 1st Hikaduwa Beach Festival that was staged by the Tourism Ministry at the height of the ground operation against the LTTE in 2008. This event attracted almost 17,000 people into Hikkaduwa and its surrounding properties that was a total sellout.

The Sri Lankan Designer Festival in 2009 was another project that demonstrated passionate delivery in the apparel industry. The model public-private partnership that was used, came out very successfully where the industry in chorus told the world buyers please practice ethical purchasing so that Sri Lanka can practice ethical manufacturing.

We need to use such models in other industries too. This is especially important as we as a nation are perceived to be having an island mentality instinct that is quite laid back.

Take the high ground

Going back to the elections once again, some of the candidates who garnered the highest preferential votes were candidates that took a very strong stance in their campaign thereby cutting through the clutter. Meaning, those who aimed very high made it to Parliament. This was either by the single minded campaign idea or the money spent on the campaign. Incidentally this behaviour was seen by the newcomers. My idea is that we need similar thinking in running the Sri Lankan economy, if we are to achieve a 8-10 percent GDP growth.

If I am to take an example the world's chocolate nation it is not a nation that either grows cocoa processes cocoa. But it happens to be a landlocked nation called Switzerland. The only reason they succeeded is because of the high ground stance they decided to take and then stuck by this decision over time.

I will be failing in my duty if I do not mention the cricketing extravaganza of India- IPL. Be that it may on the scandal that has emerged, the fact of the matter is that it's a powerful idea that has been creatively crafted to take the high ground of the game that undoubtedly has become the super bowl of India.

We must draw a few lessons from the innovative steps that India took to make this a money spinner for the Indian Economy. We need to take a similar high ground with strong financial commitment in our thirst to searching oil in Mannar, the making of the second international airport in Hambantota, driving a novel Tourism project in Kalpitiya, launching of BPO's in Jaffna or in the making of Sri Lanka a hub port in South Asia so that Sri Lanka also would create an IPL for the economy.

We must make Sri Lanka known to be the nation that beat terrorism and now the economic tiger of Asia. A point to note is that we will enjoy this fanfare from the world only for a two year duration at the most. After that, another country will become a buzz nation in the world stage so we have to make the most of it.

Currently National Geographic has ranked Sri Lanka the second most recommended place to visit and The New York Times has selected us to be in the top ten growth nations of the world.

We now need to make this recognition into driving foreign investment into the country diversifying our export portfolio.

Winning at any cost

May be I am too aggressive when I say this but, in today's world the ethos is winning at any cost. It's not how you played the game. The election was a classic example to this fact. Coming from a sports background I commend those candidates who played the game strong right to end and won.

I know of one candidate who employed all his schoolmates to man the counting centres. This is the spirit we need to run the Sri Lanka economy too.

Competition for Sri Lanka is very tight. Kenya in the tea industry, Bangladesh in the apparel industry, the emerging of Cassia in the Cinnamon industry that is dominated by Sri Lankan Cinnamon is what Sri Lanka is up against.

On the tourism front Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and India is what we have to fight against. Competitors spend millions of dollars to woo consumers into their brands and countries. This is the entrenched competition that we are up against. We have to win at any cost and there is no excuse for non delivery. If we do not we cannot bridge the budget deficit or the ballooning trade gap.

Conclusion

Whilst being upbeat on the new chapter unfolding in Sri Lanka, we as a nation should be known for the 'home grown economic model' that has helped achieve a double digit economic growth. We must also drive towards zero poverty, zero child mortality and zero unemployment levels which are all achievable goals. However, we must be smarter post the IPL fiasco and ensure a strong regulator exist so that we do not allow entrepreneurship drive corruption.

If we do not have a strong regulator from an industrywise basis, we might move to the same dilemma just like what has happened to IPL. To be honest I do not blame Laith Modi and his team for the fiasco of IPL but the policy makers like BCCI for not regulating this industry.

Entrepreneurship drives development and regulating it in mid stream can kill the industry. We must ensure to prevent this happening in Sri Lanka whilst we take the election spirit to running the economy.