Liberalize services for better prospects - Expert

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Liberalization of services is vital today because no country can prosper under the burden of an inefficient and expensive services infrastructure, Consultant to the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry for WTO and Trade Issues Prof Margeret Liang said. Speaking on “Economics of Trade’ at a training session for a team of government Officials recently, she said producers of textiles, vegetables or any other product will not be competitive without access to efficient banking, insurance, accountancy, telecom and transport systems.

In markets, where supply is inadequate imports of essential services can be as vital as imports of basic commodities. Therefore the benefits of services liberalization extend far beyond the service industries themselves, they are felt through their effects on all other economic activities.

Liang said the services sector is the largest and the fastest growing sector of the world, providing more than 60 percent of global output.

She said there are six benefits of services liberalization in economic efficiency, development access to world class services, consumer savings, faster innovation, greater transparency and predictability and technology transfer. Elaborating on the benefits of services liberalization she said an increasing number of governments rely on an open and transparent environment for the provision of services because an efficient services infrastructure is a pre condition for economic success.