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The progressive action initiated at key public sector institutions are Judiciary, Police and Public Sector bureaucracy
Sri Lanka needs to get things right this time as the hopes and aspirations of the people in the country, particularly the younger generation, is very high. The pre- and post-presidential election platform has created great expectations for a meaningful change where all can experience its impact positively.
Sri Lankan societies live below their potential
Sri Lanka is such a unique country not only because of its geographical location in the Indian Ocean but by virtue of many other factors too. Its multi-ethnic, multi-religious population of over 20 million people boast of over 2,500 years of history, culture and civilisation. However, the world at large believe this countr
y has not lived up to its true potential, in fact many will agree that Sri Lanka during the last five decades lived far below its true potential.
This is not due to any historical heritage, culture or the lack of skilfulness of the people of Sri Lanka, but due to weak institutional mechanism that lacked propelling power to energise the social and economic fabric of Sri Lanka in the last 50 years. One of the British colonial heritages they left for Sri Lanka after Independence was the strong public institutions with equally strong bureaucratic processes in place which indeed considered one of the best in Asia at that time.
Proactive public sector institutions for societal innovation and creativity
One of the key expectations and demanded deliverables from the new leadership and Government is the efficient public administration and the good and transparent governance in the public sector institutions.
Since the forming of the new Government under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, they have taken few steps in the right direction to initiate this much-needed transformation in the public sector.
The progressive action initiated at key public sector institutions are Judiciary, Police and Public Sector bureaucracy. Not only is operational independency of these institutions vital, so is good governance with efficient administration to ensure fast delivery of services from these institutions are paramount to social and economic development of the country.
In addition to these cardinal public instit
utions, there are a number of important public sector regulatory institutions, namely, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Department of Inland Revenue, the Department of Labour, the Board of Investment, and the Department of Trade and Industries, are among the few key institutions that can have significant impact on day-to-day social, economic and business activities of the country.
Efficient and independent running of these and many other public institutions are an absolute necessity if the political leadership of the country wishes to bring dynamic and impactful social development and enrichment to the people of Sri Lanka.
Towards this task, the heads or the drivers of these public sector institutions should be held responsible as well as accountable to deliver respective solutions and services to the public in a timely, quantitatively and qualitatively manner that will reflect the efficiency of these institutions.
A proactive and positively forward looking public institutions are indeed like fertile ground which brings fruits of creativity and innovation across social, economic and business fabric of the country.
Heritage of private sector productivity
The private sector that emerged and prospered in the country in the last 100 years had the flavour and inspiration of success of the tea industry, tea trade and tea export. Most of the private sector businesses for many decades have evolved around the blossoming tea industry.
One of the key success factors of the Sri Lankan private sector is its high productivity, with high quality value for money products and services. However, this high quality private sector productivity is hallmark of the businesses with certain roots and links to colonial heritage, however the same is not as evident in other key areas of the industry and agriculture sector in the country.
In the last few decades the private sector in all areas of business operations in Sri Lanka has shown high productivity levels with the optimal use of resources only on some specific businesses and industries.
Continuous improvement in productivity is key for social innovation and creativity
One of the key features of success in the high productivity of Japan’s private sector is the emergence of ‘quality circles’ and very pragmatic philosophy of ‘Kaizen’ which means ‘continuous improvement’.
However, this essential Japanese philosophy ‘Kaizen’ has not taken a firm grip on most of the Sri Lankan private sector. This probably is one of the key reasons for many issues relating to the productivity that have risen in the some of the firms in the private sector or certain areas of the private sector business and industries.
The tremendous advantage for creativity and innovation in the Japanese private sector undoubtedly is their commitment to ‘Kaizen’ or continuous improvement. If the Sri Lankan private sector is to play a major role in the social, economical and business development and enrichment, the respective firms have to be fertile grounds for creativity and innovation.
It is through this commitment to ‘continuous improvement’ that the private sector can make creativity and innovation part of their DNA to reach high qualitative and quantitative standards in productivity.
Challenge of building creative and innovative societies in Sri Lanka
In our pursuit to create a more inclusive society where equality, fair play, economic development and enrichment is equally shared among all in a societal framework, the leadership will face a number of challenges in every frontier.
Social inequality, resource efficiency and management, energy conservation, food security, environment protection, healthcare, literacy, communication and transportation, and social injustice are the key frontiers where some of the burning issues for sustainability and development of any progressive society will arise.
In all of these areas the effective solutions could be different in magnitude. Based on the issue and timing, the solutions needed could be micro, small, medium or large and once the issues are fathomed appropriately to effecting the solutions at micro, small, medium or large level, the respective societies need to surface the spirit of creativity and innovation.
In a social and economic ecosystem, existence of societies of different shape and size, from micro to small, from medium to large, will indeed require solutions as appropriate. It is in view of this that all the stakeholders including the leadership of the country should realise micro level solutions need micro level innovations and creativity and one size does not fit all.
When a particular society in the country needs an innovative solution through a push bicycle to solve transport needs, wasting time and resource on designing and implementing a metro system is not doing justice to that society.
Fragmental societal system needs innovative and creative solutions for union and interdependency
In a fragmented societal system like Sri Lanka, where there is ethnic diversity, religious diversity, cultural diversity and urban and rural diversity, solutions and services have to be at hand and it is important to maintain uniformity and other ways of specific uniqueness to serve the specific needs of that different society.
This is where creativity and innovation have to take the lead role in evolving solutions at micro, small, medium or mega level, taking best advantage of all the available resources. As stated in a living economic and social eco system, there are societies of different shapes and sizes which are independent by existence but interdependent on each other for survival and sustainability. It is in this regard the institutional support from public and private sector institutions is very vital for any living society in a country to prosper.
In this digital age x and y generations can play an effective role, bringing in low cost but more pragmatic innovations and creativity ideas to resolve issues and challenges of the respective societies. Towards this the political and business leadership should ensure the fertility status of the public and private sector institutions empowers societies in Sri Lanka to surface appropriate ideas through creativity and innovation to evolve simple and pragmatic solutions for their sustainability and prosperity.
[The writer is the Chairman of Asia’s largest microfinance network, the Banking With The Poor Network (BWTP). He is also the Chairman of CSR Sri Lanka, the national apex body for corporate social responsibility. Her serves on the boards of number of Sri Lankan and international financial institutions and innovator, advocate and practitioner of financial inclusion in Asia. He can be contacted via [email protected].]
