Private sector has to give leadership to govt sometimes

Monday, 12 May 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lankan’s premier business leadership forum ‘The Management Club’ (TMC), presented a hip topic for discussion at the quarterly evening themed ‘Nation branding to combat the UN resolution against Sri Lanka’. The guest speaker was the top thought leader and business personality Rohantha Athukorala.

“There are times in an economy where the private sector has to give leadership to the key issues that a country is faced with even though typically it has happened the other way around. But sadly, Sri Lanka’s private sector lacks this skill in the last four years post-war that has resulted in the current issue that the country is challenged with,” said Athukorala to the audience that consisted of the top business leaders of Sri Lanka that were present at the forum. The speaker explained the best case in point was the storming of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce by an extremist religious group recently that hinges on one of the salient points highlighted in the US resolution with respect to ethnic harmony that was adopted at the UN. “I am yet to see a statement by the private sector chambers denouncing such illogical behaviour by a religious group,” Athukorala said, urging the private sector to take the initiative and give leadership to the country at times.

This is the new skill that is required in the private sector which we see very effectively done in India opined Athukorala who went on to state: “If we are make Sri Lanka move up the competitive index that the Heritage Foundation champions to the world and beat the World Bank and ADB estimate of 7.3-7.5% growth prediction for the next two years, the stance of the private sector has to improve. The speaker acknowledged that in a political economy this new skill required may be tough to practice but that is the step required if we are to support the country to fight the UN resolution he cautioned. Athukorala went on to say that maybe the time has come to re-look at the CSR policies that are being practiced by companies and maybe a conscious drive to urge better governance will help the country’s fight in Geneva in the years ahead he said.