Sunday Nov 24, 2024
Sunday Nov 24, 2024
Friday, 3 October 2014 03:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lanka’s potential
He said the high growth rate that Sri Lanka has achieved is a recurring topic of conversation among business forums.
“These numbers indicate Sri Lanka’s immense potential. However, these numbers do not determine Sri Lanka’s future growth unless the areas that are creating growth are ‘locked in’ and it is for this reason that policy and reform agendas need to be carefully thought-out in order to facilitate that future growth,” said Wilton at the symposium, at which Chief Guest was EFC’s former Secretary General and former Deputy Director, the Bureau for Employers Activities of the International Labour Organisation.
Apart from the unique position of Sri Lanka, the urgent need to rethink strategies in the business world is felt globally as “coming out of the recession, the whole world has been facing this dilemma of having to rethink their entire strategies. What existed before the recession is not going to exist after the recession. The answers that worked in the past are not going to be the answers for the future.”
Ease of Doing Business
The country need to find ways to attract investors and encourage people to start businesses and create new employment opportunities. While the public sector can support growth through infrastructure development it is up to the private sector to create wealth. Policies and legislation needs to reflect that.
Sri Lanka is placed 85 in the Ease of Doing Business index according to the World Bank. Even with a two point drop since last year, this still places the country in a leading position in the region,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean you are doing worse. It means someone else is now doing it better” pointed out Wilton adding that it was not sufficient for the country to be satisfied as being the best in the region. Instead Sri Lanka needs to pursue leadership on a global standard and attract investors who could potentially invest anywhere in the world, as he pointed out: “As you drop others are increasing their ability to attract more investors.”
He also said that the private sector and the Government have an important part to play in deciding policies and legislation. “Legislation should promote investors. There should also be an ease to start businesses,” he said.
In Wilton’s home land New Zealand, new businesses can be started with a simple online registration process. “Thirty minutes later you get your tax number and then you’re done,” he said of mechanisms that have been made available to promote the start-up of new enterprises abroad.
In contrast to this, Sri Lanka’s ranking in the ease of starting a business has dropped from 47 in 2013 to 54 this year.
Wilton also pointed out that some laws prevalent in Sri Lanka (such as the requirement of a third party when firing people for redundancy) might make it hard for employers to engage in new business ventures.
He said: “Why should investors invest in Sri Lanka, when they can invest anywhere in the world? This depends on the ease of doing business.”
Emerging service economies
According to the IOE official, a lot of emphasis has been made in recent times on the emerging service economies. While many countries have been able to achieve rapid growth by developing their service sector, this does not indicate that production lines should be abandoned in order to achieve rapid development. As Wilton points out: “The countries that recovered from the economic recession first were Germany and Switzerland; they were countries that built stuff.”
It was emphasised companies also need to prepare for the future by ‘investing in the solution’ developing skills that go hand-in-hand with rapidly developing technology. As the world heads towards a future where robots will do more work than people, organisations need to prepare for this by teaching people to work with technology and not be taken over by it.”
Corruption
Furthermore, efforts are also need to be made to reduce corruption as it is the “biggest cost and anchor on the development of a country” Wilton said, pointing out various issues that have to be addressed during policy discussions. Wilton further added infrastructure development should also be aimed at value addition and “not just a political gift to certain regions or certain organisations”.
With local and global speakers, yesterday’s sessions were on identifying barriers to a better workplace and the dilemma of the equitable wage. Today the symposium will have a sessions titled ‘CEO to CEO discussion’ as well as focus on ‘What is the best prescription for the workplaces?’ ‘Breaking barriers – the corporate debate’ and a presentation of enterprise-based case studies.
Pix by Upul Abayasekara
