Lanka moots multi-departmental body to sustain long term export
upswing
Identifies three emergent challenges to export
growth:
Sri Lanka is mooting a single coordinating mechanism consisting of
vital government departments to sustain its long-term exports upswing.
Sri Lanka has also identified three emergent challenges to future
exports growth, according to Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad
Bathiudeen.
“Sri Lanka needs to firmly focus on a collaborative approach to
overcome emergent challenges so that our export growth momentum will
continue. We need to promote a Cross Functional Team styled mechanism
that involves the vital stakeholders in our exports. The
inter-departmental coordination of all concerned government departments
and ministries such as the customs, environment ministry, is essential”
Minister Bathiudeen said.
The Minister was addressing the Presidential Export Awards 2007-2009
held recently at Temple Trees under the patronage of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa.
Minister Bathiudeen has identified three emergent challenges to Sri
Lanka’s exports. “I should caution that we now have to face a number of
serious challenges in the export sector. First is that our export
volumes have showed strong resilience even when a three decades of
terrorist war and a highly volatile global economic climate was
battering our country. You may wonder as to how such an achievement has
turned to a challenge. As we embrace a new economic upswing in a
peaceful Sri Lanka and also entering a recession free global market, we
are now compelled to demonstrate much stronger export growth statistics
than ever before.
The second crucial challenge is that any economic growth trend,
however promising, cannot go on indefinitely.
There should be concerted efforts by all stakeholders to sustain the
growth specially in the context of both local and international economic
cycles, and other vital factors such as global production process
sharing, that may pose strong challenges to our current positive exports
cycle. The third and most important challenge is the greening process of
our manufacturing and agro sectors.
Going green has now become not only fashionable but even profitable.
The idea is gaining increasing importance due to the competitive
advantage it brings to our manufacturing and exports along with
increased cost savings. In fact I wish to reiterate my statement on last
May 4 that Going Green could be the future for our industries. I think
you would agree that there may not be industrial excellence or
international greatness for us if our precious environment is left to
suffer.
In fact, it is in these three challenges that the strength of our
export development strategy of sustained diversification, outsourcing,
value addition and integrating to the emergent international value and
supply chains will be tested,” Minister Bathiudeen said.
According to international analysts, after 30 years of lacklustre
exports performance, Sri Lanka has recorded a 45 percent exports growth
in the first four months of 2011.
An 18 percent annualised growth in Money Supply stimulus combined
with a policy of steadily held interest rate has brought an appealing
credit outlook and rate of return for investors. The 2011 first quarter
also reported resilient industrial output exceeding 10 percent.
Proposing solutions for the emergent challenges and effective exports
coordination, Minister Bathiudeen said: “Given the magnitude of the
above challenges, firstly it is clear that Sri Lanka needs to firmly
focus on a collaborative approach to overcome these emergent challenges
so that our export growth momentum continues. In that,
inter-departmental coordination of all concerned government departments
and ministries such as the customs and environment ministry is
essential.
To this end, we need to promote a cross functional team styled
mechanism that involves the vital stakeholders in our exports. Secondly,
promptly activating a well-integrated and a well-functioning,
streamlined single electronic documentation window system that also
takes in the stakeholder feedback, should be initiated in parallel to
this inter departmental cross functional mechanism.
It is imperative that the coordination mechanism and the electronic
single window system be linked and tightly integrated. Such a two
pronged course of action, I believe can help us enormously to address
not only the above mentioned challenges but even the emergent issues in
competitive advantage, cross border logistics and electronic
documentation,” he said. |