Chamber of Industries says high time Govt. presented economic recovery plans

The Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) yesterday said it was high time to present economic recovery plans by the Government. 

CNCI Chairman Canisius Fernando said that Sri Lanka is currently facing an unprecedented economic crisis with an unhealthy socio-political environment owing to poor management of the authorities concerned who are accountable for the State’s economy. 

He further said that the country had been at a post-pandemic era, where the country’s economic growth was at a downward trend. “The high inflation rate, depletion of foreign exchange reserves, investment of funds from facilities on zero return on investment projects, cutting down Government taxes and sovereign debt crisis can be identified as root causes for the economic crisis we are facing at present,” he said. 

The CNCI Chief said industrialists are facing not the challenge of profit maximisation but the challenge of survival in the industry. Their processes are hampered and the operations are badly constrained by a number of factors which include import restrictions, material shortage, fuel shortage, power disruptions, worker absenteeism, escalating production cost, unstable supply chain and infra-structure etc. The situation makes it enormously difficult for the industrialists to plan their future which is essential to reach their destinations. 

The gravest side effects brought about by the forex issue are the short supplies of fuel, gas and electricity. Fuel is connected with every industrial activity including process operation, supply chain moves, staff transport and end product transportation. Whenever there is a fuel/power shortage in the country, all above mentioned activities are paralysed which in turn will increase the cost, lower the quality and drag the time against what has been planned. 

This brings about a serious threat especially to the export oriented industries as their global buyers tend to divert their orders to other countries. He said the constant power disruptions drastically reduce the production efficiency making it difficult to meet the market demand which creates opportunities for the competitors to grab the space in the market.  

In all social and institutional circles including the Parliament, everyone speaks only about the issues, may it be general or personal but no one seems to come up with a constructive solution to the burning problems the country’s citizens are facing today. 

There are miles-long queues around the gas and fuel stations and the people are waiting days and weeks in the queues with numerous physical and emotional constraints. Seriousness has been revealed with the number of deaths related to these consequences. Schools have been closed.  

There is a significant dearth of medicines and milk powders in the market. Prices of essential food items are determined by the market forces for which the general laymen have hardly access. Government services have been weakened. Company employees are in queues for hours and days, which affects the productivity and finally the industries should be in a queue of discontinuing their businesses. 

In the midst of all these issues, the people in the country, who are shouldering unbearable burdens for no fault of theirs, eagerly expect the vision of the authorities of the Government who should present their master plan to address the issues. 

Instead, what the authorities do is that they constantly amplify the doubts and fears of the people every fortnight saying that the future is critical, with which the general public have no choice but to starve in every angle. If the situation persists longer there may be uncontrollable situations among the groups of people in their struggle to seek essential needs of their daily life and survival.

“Being the general public, what we believe is that the Government should expedite the matters to receive IMF concurrence to restructure the facilities, take strategic moves to attract FDIs, promotion of tourism and encourage exporters by providing facilities to a conducive environment rather than disrupting their operations, seeking opportunities for foreign employments, timely projects for power generation and industrial development etc. Unfortunately, the Government is yet to extend policy responses/formulations and create plans for economic recovery,” Fernando said. 

“Under the circumstances we urge the Government to present the Government’s vision to the nation along with short-term and long-term plans/proposals for economic recovery which is essential for all the citizens in the country to move forward in the same direction to rise as one country – one nation,” the CNCI President emphasised.