Building a local technological capability

In January 1996 the science journal Nature published a report from Gill Juleff, a British Archaeologist, that wind-driven blast furnaces had been used for smelting steel in the Samanalawewa area in the first millennium.

This technology produced, on a large-scale, high-grade steel-which may have been the famed sword-making material referred to in Arabic sources as ‘Sarandibi steel’.

There is no evidence of these furnaces after the 11th century. And there is no continuity between this technology and the later, village-based steel making techniques, relying on bellows, reported by Ananda Coomaraswamy in the 20th century.

The discontinuation of this technology coincides with the period in which the Anuradhapura kingdom collapsed. It was the period of Chola invasions, of wars and uncertainty and technological and cultural degradation.

Sir Cyril de Zoysa	AYS Gnanam

This example from our history illustrates how fragile technological knowledge is and, once lost, how hard to resurrect.

Learning process

In modern IT parlance, technology is not just about hardware; there is an incredible amount of software (human knowledge and experience) associated with it. And it does not exist in a vacuum: it must be backed by a society and economy that nurtures it.

After 1956, there was a period in which the technological capabilities of this country advanced rapidly, driven by the needs of import-substitution industrialisation. Much of this technology was brought from abroad, but was adapted to Sri Lanka’s requirements and capabilities.

In many instances, the existing technology was being replaced by a new one, which meant that we had to start the learning process again. For example, the Ceylon Government Railways already had the capability to build steam locomotives.

However, the dieselisation of the 1960s put an end to steam locomotives. The CGR nevertheless began the laborious climb to technological self-sufficiency by building diesel-powered shunting locomotives.

Building and construction sector

Nowhere was this process more apparent than in the building and construction sector. Led by the innovative ANS Kularatne, modern construction techniques were introduced and local capabilities were enhanced. Buildings were mass-produced for the first time.

AYS Gnanam was an industrialist who thrived on import-substitution industrialisation, branching out from hardware to textiles, plastics and electronics. A showcase of technological capability building was his manufacture of radios.

His company had the local agency for a Japanese brand and he began by assembling radios supplied by his principals. Thereafter, local parts were substituted one by one until it was ultimately almost a totally locally-made product. The same process was followed by the Ceylon Transport Board as it strove to indigenise bus production. Bus body building was already established by the time the CTB was formed, but now it was done using mass-production techniques.

The CTB began assembling buses, followed by the substitution of parts, some being made in-house, others obtained from local manufacturers. Machinery was obtained for building chassis and the first Sri Lankan - made bus rolled out in the mid-70s.

Automotive battery production

Sir Cyril de Zoysa was the driving force behind indigenous automotive battery production. When the market was found to be too small to support a lead re-processing plant, he joined with the government and the other manufacturers to establish one for the entire industry.

However, technology transfer is not sufficient. A self-reliant technological sector requires technological innovation. And that too was available in abundance.

Technological development

A stunning example of this was in the tea machinery industry, which was a world leader at the time. In 1966, the Colombo Commercial Company took out a worldwide patent on fluidised bed tea driers. This was possible because of the close relationship between the tea machinery industry and the tea plantation industry.

Another remarkable innovation was by the pioneering Prof JCV Chinnappa, who developed solar-powered refrigeration. However, although we had a fairly developed refrigeration industry, the necessary symbiosis was not there (and perhaps Chinappa was too far ahead of his time), and Sri Lanka lost its lead.

By the end of the 1970s, Sri Lanka had a solid basis for technological development. It had a thriving tea machinery industry, which exported all over the world, the flagship of an industrial sector which was self-reliant and technologically capable.

Unfortunately, in the post-1977 period the economy was opened up too rapidly and foreign imports flooded our market.

The economy grew, but at the cost of our technological capacity the indigenous electronics and tea machinery industries died. The transport sector became almost totally dependent on foreign imports of rolling stock and fully-built buses.

Worse, we now no longer have the social and economic basis for technological innovation. Research and Development budgets are well-nigh non-existent.

The personnel are there, in the universities and in the technical colleges.

However, there is nearly nowhere on this island where they can enhance their technological skills - the atmosphere simply does not exist. Most of the technologists coming out of institutions of higher learning drift abroad.

Many educated people are absorbed into the growing outsourcing sector. But this, like the garment industry, is based upon cheap labour and our comparative advantage will dissipate as our per capita income grows.

There are several promising government programmes designed to take technology to the villages, for example via ‘Nenasela’ IT nodes and ‘Vidatha’ science and technology centres. However, more is required - we need to change the structure of our economy to accommodate technological innovation.

Political leaders

If we are to advance into the 21st century, it is imperative that we build up our technological capabilities. We could learn from other countries which managed to do so while at the same time keeping their markets open.

We could also learn from our own building and construction sector, which has been one of the few to enhance its technological competence in recent times.

There are also several small companies which have created technology-based niches for themselves, and this is possibly the way forward - finding our technological niches and filling them.

What we require from our political leaders is the will to create the economic, social and cultural conditions which will enable technological innovation to take systemic root in our country once again.