Inevitable solution to national growth

By Sanka Wijeyakulasuriya
Growth is just a statistical figure that keeps rising in Sri Lanka. There’s not much visible evidence for the improvement of the economy. Biasness to other countries political policies has become the ultimate weakness of our leaders. Patriotism is no longer the motive of those who are in power, but survival is. Economy is controlled by a few individuals. Terrorism has become common.

Law plays a major role in a country’s growth. To achieve high standards in maintaining law, the “Fear of Law” should be established. Law is not just a way of correcting wrong doers, but also a way of eliminating the dangerous ones. As long as a country doesn’t understand the value of the death penalty, its goals will be unaccomplished.
All it takes is one honest leader at the top who is willing to go the distance. Do the following two things correctly and the entire country will turn around to the correct path.

• Finish the civil war and uphold the law at its highest level
• Improve Local Manufacturing

Peace cannot be attained through talks since compromises will have to be made, of which this country has lots of experiences. Negotiations with terrorists should be stopped for the simple fact that they are terrorists. If we act in a manner that they don’t approve the only thing which will be done is terrorism. It’s about time to implement laws such as “surrender or die”. Military expenses are a waste, if we don’t have an ultimate goal. Hard choices will have to be made in hard times. There are many options available in stopping this war. Here’s what’s on the top of the list.
“ First, destroy their infrastructure ( police stations, banks, warehouses, etc). Secondly, carryout death penalties authorized by the government of the captured rebellious terrorists. Next, cut out their supply lines (especially electricity and water). Finally give them a final date to surrender and after that authorize search and destroy missions.” [Step 1 - Taking out their existing assets. Step 2 - Giving a taste of what to expect. Step 3 - Not letting them rebuild. Step 4 - Elimination]. Four months is more than enough to carry out this plan and get rid of the LTTE forever.

Once the country is free from its civil war, it will be to rebuild. The country’s provinces should be designated with specialized development projects. Pooling the assets is the key, if we are to prosper from a very limited amount of resources. Logistics cost reduction, maximized utility of land, uniformity are a few advantages of this method. One of the main reasons we don’t feel our country’s present downfall is because our eyes are covered with the water and the green. (i.e. there’s enough food & water for everyone to make them forget about other serious problems) It’s the only blessing which keeps Sri Lanka from converting into a Somalia. ( Natural resources and deniability )

Manufacturing should be focused on 2 basic criteria since we are on the mend. Food stability inside the country, even on a world crisis and Capital investments for the long term growth. The 9 Provincial designated projects are as follows.

• Spices and rice
• Coconut and sea food
• Tea, vegetables and fruits
• Vehicle and electrical items Manufacturing
• Cultural and national entertainment
• IT and research
• Small businesses
• Forestry and animals
• Financial

Project 1, 2, 3
Since rice is the main food in our country, it’s very important to produce our own. Spices are the new future hope of Sri Lanka’s exports. So it’s very important to maintain high quality through research. Coconut plantation and sea food manufacturing will be easy since we live on an island. This is one place, we Sri Lankans have missed out in the past. We haven’t used the biggest asset we have to its fullest potential, the ocean. Vegetables and fruits are important to keep our health levels up since a 3rd world country such as ours will have a high tendency to receive rejected and expired products from Europe and America. Tea production levels should be increased since our goodwill is high in the International market. Also new flavours should be introduced so we can have an upper hand over the other competitors such as Kenya.

Project 4
A country should have its own supply of basic vehicles like cars and buses. Since all the manufacturing will be done in closely situated factories, Just-In-Time (JIT) technique could be easily adopted reducing or eliminating warehousing costs and giving rise to other benefits. Basic essential electronic items such as gas cookers, washing machines, etc would be ideal to start off the electronic items manufacturing.

Project 5
National heritages should be brought up to high standards giving international publicity and recognition such as using historical events and places to create movies (Eg – Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise made sure that the entire world knew about the Samurai way of life). More tourist attractions should be developed. For example Grand Ancient Festivals ( Eg - Ancient Kings Festival, Rice Festival, Coconut Festival, etc ), More VIP Hotels, etc.

Project 6
IT and Research is also crucial since we don’t have any large scale research centres to compete with the international markets which in turn will give huge advantages to the country. Genetically and health wise improved quality spices, tea, vegetables, etc could be achieved. Internet facilities should be available island wide and it’ll solve two major problems with one solution. They are; Rural English Knowledge Level Problem & their computer literacy. IT is a good business opportunity in a third world country like Sri Lanka since we can produce low cost and high quality software and hardware products.

Project 7
Sculpturing, pottery, matting, traditional masks, etc could be improved with training and with high quality raw materials. Government should support them by providing reasonable prices for their products and also control the competitors imports.

Project 8
Since almost all the developed countries are adopting high industrialized economic approaches, their eco levels have come down drastically. This means during the next few decades Bio Diversity will be the ultimate asset. The same scenario is applicable with the animals. Many are vanishing from this earth by the day. If we can preserve some of these valuable animals and grow our forests at a time when less people have shown interest in them. It’ll give a big strategic advantage over the other countries in the near future.

Project 9
Financial district is very important because this will be the heart of every operation that takes place in the country. Due to the pooling of all the assets the competitiveness will be at its highest here giving better quality output and services.

Encouraging foreign investments is another critical success factor. Since we are now under the assumption that the war is over, investors will take more interest in the local market opportunities. Also the government should bring laws to decrease the labour union powers because most of the foreign investors consider this bargaining power which the labourers posses as a lethal decease to do business.

New laws should be legislated for manufacturing companies, to follow concepts such as 5s, 6Sigma, etc to improve quality and efficiency

Tax fluctuation is a key feature in improving local manufacturing industry. Increase tax rates for competitor imports & decrese the rates for local products. Consumers will have to face initial high cost problems, but in the long run it will be beneficial for both the country and the consumer.

Main utility of the government income should be, to pay off the international debts as soon as possible so that foreign political pressure on our government could be reduced. In the meantime the new treaty agreements should be carefully thought of.
Adam’s Bridge should be made in to a highway so Sri Lanka will be connected to Asia giving us new business opportunities in transportation, tourism, etc.

City Traffic is the next problem which needs attention. Register and restrict the amount of buses & three-wheelers on the road. In the same way the other vehicles on the road should also be controlled. Increasing the amount of one-way roads is also necessary. Fines for traffic rule breaks should be increased even higher. Heavy vehicle transportation (Container trucks, Lorries) should be restricted to low traffic times. Quality of road development from now on should be increased, so the maintenance levels would be low. Toxic air polluting vehicles should be taken off from the road immediately.

“Local Brain Import” is a necessary action for any government. The migrated local knowledge gurus should be brought back to the country through different incentives such as income tax deductions, high salary offers, interesting career opportunities, etc. Their international experience will mingle perfectly with the local resources.
Strong Military base camps should be located in every District to strengthen the inland security.

These National Manufacturing Projects will take 5 – 5 ½ years to complete. This 6 year plan will guarantee that the Sri Lanka’s Economic Growth will be turned towards success. Once the country is free of conflicts and production is high economic growth is inevitable. The only question is: who wants to grow?