Speeding-up foreign investment

As could be seen, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's China visit has proved a huge success, particularly considering the series bilateral economic cooperation agreements Sri Lanka has successfully entered into with China.

The groundwork which has been laid for stepped-up Chinese business investment in this country, along with the vistas which could be said to be opening for heightened Chinese tourist traffic into Sri Lanka, are among the other material benefits which could be visualized for us. All credit to President Kumaratunga and her team for successfully showcasing Sri Lanka's economic strengths in Asia's most vibrant economy or the economic power house of the East.

Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike's request to Chinese holiday-makers to make Sri Lanka an important destination in their itinerary, points to the fact that economic prosperity in China is both widespread and evenly distributed among the bulk of her people.

This is proof that a measure of economic deregulation within a socialistic framework-as essentially practised in the People's Republic of China - could yield substantial economic benefits for the people and enhance their purchasing power.

As pointed out by President Kumaratunga at the China Investment, Tourism and Trade Promotion seminar in Beijing, Sri Lanka has been consistently following a free market economic policy since the mid-Seventies. In fact former Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Sri Lanka in the mid-Seventies to study the functioning of the then Greater Colombo Economic Zone, since Sri Lanka blazed a new trail in South Asia by first experimenting in this region with the relatively open economy.

While we hope Chinese entrepreneurs would respond positively to President Kumaratunga's invitation to explore the possibility of launching joint economic ventures here, the President's observations could be used as a point of departure to assess our economic performance over the decades and to come to grips frankly with the socio-political bottlenecks which have been holding-up our development.

No doubt, our middle class has expanded since the mid-Seventies, when economic deregulation was given the greenlight, but to what degree has economic growth combined with economic equity? Despite a degree of dynamic economic growth which has raised many from the lower middle and working classes to the middle class, quite a sizeable number of Lankans languish below the poverty line, making Samurdhi assistance their sole means of sustenance.

What could be holding-up the development process? Now that another Presidential poll is round the corner, we hope the Presidential hopefuls would make it one of their priorities to grapple with this issue and tell us whether the levels of prosperity in this country could be significantly raised to enable multitudes of Lankans to tour countries such as China one day.

We hope our Presidential contenders would consider the enormous bearing our unresolved ethnic conflict has on the people's well being. We have done well to keep the ceasefire going over the past three years but we remain precariously suspended between no war and no peace. Despite having relative peace, the parties to the conflict cannot overlook the necessity to be sufficiently equipped to meet a war situation. This too is a drain on our resources.

There is no overlooking the need, therefore, to work towards resolving the conflict by peaceful means. This is a number one priority which our Presidential hopefuls cannot gloss over. We are glad to note, however, that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has already realised the magnitude of this issue.

In fact, a vigorous move towards a negotiated solution would substantially improve the ground situation in our country and pave the way for stepped-up foreign investment.