With five-year science, technology and innovation strategy:

Fighting economic war

Excerpts of the address by technology and Research Minister Prof Tissa Vitarana at the Presidential Science Awards Ceremony – 2010

Economic development depends on our ability to produce goods and services that are successfully sold in the global market. If they are not sold we lose the economic war. For them to be sold, our goods and services must be better in quality and/or cheaper than those from abroad.

To achieve this good quality world class innovation and technology must support the Sri Lankan entrepreneurs in the industrial, agricultural and service sectors.

Technology purchased from abroad will always be the second best available, unless we give the foreign investor the major ownership of the enterprise with the right to remove the profits.

We must give up the colonial mindset of being a primary producer of raw materials and low value added products for the world market.

We must produce high value added products, that not only bring in a much higher return for the investment, but also can successfully compete with other products.

Only 1.5 percent of Sri Lankan exports are high tech, while it is 27 percent in Thailand, over 50 percent in Singapore and Malaysia, over 70 percent in South Korea and over 80 percent in Japan. No wonder they are able to capture the world markets.

Already the technology has been developed to enable nano-titanium dioxide to be produced from ilmenite, with a 250 time value addition.

We earn about US $ eight million per year by exporting raw ilmenite and spend US $ 12 million to import the titanium dioxide required for our paint industry. As a country we are the losers; no wonder we remain poor. We can change all this by developing our own industry to produce titanium dioxide, save and earn foreign exchange and also generate jobs.

We must have faith in our scientists. Those here and abroad must be mobilized to rally round and support the development effort. We must provide them with the research facilities, the world class facilities, that are now lacking.

Where salaries are concerned it is only by matching what scientists earn in the world market, at least to some extent, that we can stop and reverse the brain drain. As you gave special treatment to the soldiers who fought the war against the LTTE successfully, you should give special treatment to the scientists, the warriors in the ‘economic war’, so long as they successfully help in achieving success.

The five year Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy will help get all the stakeholders – the Government, the administrators, the scientists and entrepreneurs – to work together help you to win the ‘economic war’ to lift our country out of poverty and make us a prosperous developed country. All success to your efforts.