“Asian Century is a Sri Lankan opportunity”: Weerakkody

Saturday, 2 February 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Focus on education and training to leverage on new opportunities

Commercial Bank of Ceylon Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody speaking at the 54th National Conference of the Finance Houses Associations under the theme ‘Skills Challenges in the 4k Era and Beyond’ observed that the recent unveiling of the Road Map for 2013 targeting a growth plan that aims to achieve $ 4,000 per capita income by 2016 offers a huge economic opportunity for Sri Lanka to reform our education and training with a bias for technological, scientific, and industrial skills.

Therefore, he said, we need to focus our education and training system primarily to deliver the skills to leverage the new opportunities that would become available for the country. However, he said Sri Lanka would need to move up the ladder of skills sophistication very fast and that would require us to overnight strengthen our general education and a training system. Otherwise it is virtually impossible to leverage MNCs for skills formation beyond the immediate needs of the firm.

He further pointed out that the Asian Century is a Sri Lankan opportunity and if we are to benefit from the Asian Century, we need to have a standard level of skills in the work force on which to build our economy.

As an industry he pointed out, LFCs will need to pay closer attention to attracting and retaining employees with the right skills to manage these new opportunities. LFCs would require a people strategy designed to offer a compelling employment value proposition by providing benefits, training and development, good working environment and new opportunities that meet the needs of today’s workers. This will help to drive higher levels of employee commitment and that will in return help to improve employee retention rates, improve customer satisfaction and positively impact business results.

Weerakkody next pointed out that a big factor in growth is technology and therefore LFCs must leverage business technology to drive scale, innovation and productivity. He pointed out that technology in the workplace allows businesses to expand quickly and efficiently.

Business technology such as video conferencing, social networks and virtual office technology has removed workplace boundaries that previously limited business expansion. Companies can now target a wider customer base and grow it to higher levels. He also observed that smart phones were now mainstream; you can now pay for products by yourself using your smart phone.

Technology companies and banks have now even more ambitious plans to turn the smart phone into a portable payment system and now even the big companies that were refusing to recognise social media are getting more social, to engage Gen Y customers. Therefore, he said, those businesses that loathe embracing social media will realise that they will have to get into that space or be left behind for good. However, he stressed for technology to power economic growth, education and workforce skills will have to keep pace with technological development.

Weerakkody in conclusion said that in the next five years the internet would radically change the way do business, socialise and share information, therefore policy makers and businesses must recognise and embrace the enormous opportunity the internet can create for economic growth and prosperity.