Clean Sri Lanka – foundation for a strong nation brand?

Clean Sri Lanka – strong foundation for a nation brand building campaign

With the launch of 2025 we saw a novel campaign launched in the country. Clean Sri Lanka! It is a very strong campaign that hinges on three pillar sustainability: Economic, Social and Governance. The vision being to make Sri Lanka a beautiful island with smiling people. It sure captures the essence of Sri Lanka. It is a brilliant strategy.

Environmental sustainability will address waste management, energy, water, biodiversity and air quality (which is a key issue in the whole of the South Asian region). Social sustainability will cover the empowering communities through education, health and inclusion whilst governance will include the advocacy of ethics, transparency and effective policy reforms. Economic sustainability will include green jobs, sustainable industries and entrepreneurship. These are the 14 legs that will bring out actions that contribute to a sharp identity globally in the future.

Simon Anholt – words

 As per the words of the global nation brand building expert Simon Anholt: The real essence of Nation Brand building is a series of actions over a long period of time that will result in the people of the country talking well to the outside world and also Sri Lanka becoming more relevant to a global consumer by way of the products and services she supply to the world. The Clean Sri Lanka campaign beautifully captures this essence – the series of actions that will roll out during a long period of time as per the words of Simon Anholt. Now the challenge is for the political hierarchy to give the leadership over time and the 21 million people to live this in their daily lives. There can be a few issues during the launch phase but it has the legs and hands for the people of Sri Lanka to talk well of the brand.

Sri Lanka – 70% in trouble

 Whilst this ‘behavioural’ direction is exactly what Sri Lanka requires, we must also be cognisant of the fact that 70% of the Sri Lankans are experiencing the harshness of life – their income is less than the household expenditure as per Pepper Cube Consulting research company.

The prices of goods have increased three fold and putting food on the table is a challenge. UNICEF reported that Sri Lanka has the highest acute malnutrition of children under 5 years of age. Almost 17% are suffering from chronic wasting – a disease that carries the highest risk of death. UNICEF reported that 5.7 million people which included 2.3 million children required humanitarian assistance in Sri Lanka making the country be in the top 10 countries for malnourished children. These research insights still exist. This is the reality. Estate sector poverty is as high as 51% as per Learn Asia. Rural poverty is as high as 36% and urban poverty at 18%. We have to balance the short term reality and the long term vision for Sri Lanka. This is the reality.

A classic case in point was the recent uproar by the masses on the scarcity of ‘Nadu’ and escalating prices of rice. It’s a wakeup call on the challenge at the household end. Policy makers must understand that food based nutrition is the best for children and pregnant mothers. If this is deprived, it will hamper brain development of a child.

It’s great that Sri Lanka had the best year for tax revenue touching Rs. 1.9 trillion plus in 2024. A point to note is that it is the middle income that has got taxed from all sides. Income tax went up from 24% to 36% and corporate takes also doubled which resulted in the salary increases and benefits that a company can benefit being impacted. This is the segment of people that is migrating overseas and we see this reality in the IT sector of Sri Lanka.

Economic development agenda – Croatian example

 Whilst Clean Sri Lanka is a brilliant architecture for a powerful nation brand, we must also balance it with an aggressive economic development agenda. This must be done urgently so that the key issue of Sri Lanka can be addressed – cost of living. One of the best case studies of strong economic development together with brand building has been done was Croatia. Sri Lanka must emulate this case study if we are to achieve sustainability on the Clean Sri Lanka campaign. Let me go into detail on the model that was used by Croatia.

Croatia – unplugged

 Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean country with a population of 4.5 million people. The country has an image as one of the most successful destinations in the Mediterranean that was built with nation brand building – being relevant to the world and the people talking well about their own country from within. In fact, the country was rated as one of the two European countries to make the ‘Most Improved’ list on economic development in the recent past.

Croatia built the nation brand by focussing on behaviour demonstrated at the ground end over a period of time. It was never through glitzy advertising. The country behaved as a good corporate citizen on the global stage. Sri Lanka has the potential to do the same with the Clean Sri Lanka campaign. Let me do an in-depth on how Croatia developed the economic development agenda.

1) Exports

 Croatia received very different ratings on the various scores that go into the Nation Brand ranking. While the country’s brand equity and infrastructure rankings remain low, strong economic growth and the prospect of EU membership raised the country’s economic rating which is exactly what Croatia did.

In late 1997, the Croatian Chamber of Economy started the project to visually mark Croatian products with Croatian quality and Croatian creation labels. The Croatian quality label is given to 110 Croatian products whose properties meet high world standards. With regard to multilateral cooperation, special attention was paid to the EU as the most important foreign trade partner, because full membership of this European integration was the main strategic goal of Croatia. Branding of the merchandise on a proposition was seen as crucial to Croatia because it has realised that timelines for acceptance into the European Union and ability to compete against their neighbours for investment hinged on being relevant to the EU consumer. This is exactly what Croatia did by gaining access to a trade block.

Sri Lanka on the ‘Ethical sourcing destination theme’ can be a proposition that can be developed. The apparel industry is EU certified for ethical sourcing. Ceylon Tea is endorsed as an ‘ozone friendly product’ across the value chain as per the Kyoto protocol. This same proposition can be extended to Ceylon Cinnamon and Ceylon Sapphire. The IT sector harping on the ‘island on ingenuity’ platform is already a big win that is targeting a five billion dollar export revenue.

    2) Governance

 Even though Croatia’s brand equity was hurt by the lasting associations of the country with the brutal Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, and the unwillingness of post-war governments to cooperate in the prosecution of war crimes suspects, the country has worked hard in building their brand image. Croatia today has a very high Human Development Index.

The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high income economy. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, CEFTA, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is an acceding state of the European Union, with full membership. Croatia has established diplomatic relations with 174 countries. Croatia maintains a network of 51 embassies, 24 consulates and eight permanent diplomatic missions abroad. Furthermore, there are 52 foreign embassies and 69 consulates in the Republic of Croatia. Croatia spent 6.9% of its GDP on healthcare.

Sri Lanka on the other hand already provides free medical care, education across the island and has the highest rating on the Human Development Index in South Asia. With the Clean Sri Lanka campaign being driven by the President himself and it being relevant from a Governance and values perspective Sri Lanka is poised to earn itself a clear brand identity in the future. However the product wise supply chain and demand driven strategies must be inked with a clear road map.

 3) Culture

 Croatia represents a blend of four different cultural spheres. Croatia has 23 professional theatres, 14 professional children’s theatres, and 27 amateur theatres visited by more than two million viewers per year. The professional theatres employ 1,100 artistes. There are 24 professional orchestras, ensembles and choirs in the country, attracting an annual attendance of 323,000. There are 117 cinemas with attendance exceeding 3.5 million. Croatia has 175 museums, visited by nearly 2.2 million people in 2009. Furthermore, there are 1,685 libraries in the country. It shows people's positive attitude towards aesthetics.

Sri Lanka’s 2,500 heritage with the strong culture can beat the above proportion with absolute ease. Sigiriya with its rich history, the 2,500-year-old ruins of Polonnaruwa of ancient Sri Lanka sets the stage for a strong history and culture. The most notable is the family driven culture which makes Sri Lanka unique. A land of smiling faces is the essence of Brand Sri Lanka.

 4) People

 Croatia has established a high level of human development and gender equality in terms of the Human Development Index and it also promotes disability rights. Literacy in Croatia stands at 98.1%. A worldwide study about the quality of living in different countries ranks the Croatian education system at 22nd, to share the position with Austria. Primary education in Croatia starts at the age of six or seven and consists of eight grades.

In 2007 a law was passed to increase free, non-compulsory education until 18 years of age. Compulsory education consists of eight grades of elementary school. Secondary education is provided by gymnasiums and vocational schools. As of 2010, there were 2,131 elementary schools and 713 schools providing various forms of secondary education. Primary and secondary education is also available in languages of recognised minorities in Croatia.

There are 84 elementary level and 47 secondary level music and art schools, as well as 92 schools for disabled children and youth and 74 schools for adults. Croatia has also produced inventors and two Croatians received the Nobel Prize. Such factors will have a positive impact on the overall nation brand value.

 5) Tourism

 Since the conclusion of the Croatian War of Independence, the tourist industry has grown rapidly, recording a fourfold rise in tourist numbers, with more than 15 million tourists each year. Tourism dominates the Croatian service sector and accounts for up to 20% of Croatian GDP. Annual tourist industry income is estimated at € 10 billion.

If we do a parallel to Sri Lanka, we outbeat the likes of Croatia on tourism on many folds. One of the best ranked island destinations globally, the most desired wedding destination, the best for solo travel. The land of the most waterfalls in an island and boasting the best wildlife safaris in Asia makes Sri Lanka unique.

Way forward – Sri Lanka

 Clean Sri Lanka is a brilliant foundation for making Sri Lanka a strong brand globally. However, given the hardships of a household at the consumer end we have to balance the strong emphasis for ‘economic development’ like Croatia together with a nation brand building campaign – Clean Sri Lanka. The challenge is how do we do this two pronged strategy whilst the IMF is mandating us to move up the tax revenues to 18% of GDP. We have moved up from 8% to 14% so far.

 

(The author is a Brand Marketer professionally and works for a South Asian AI company Clootrack Software Labs – SL, Maldives and Pakistan on AI based brand mapping. He is the Vice President of World Rural Tourism Council for South Asia.)