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Biz community wants new Prez to revive sectors immediately

21 Jul 2022

  • CNCI says shortage of fuel, raw material require new Prez’s attention 
  • SCSMI wants SMEs to be looked after, as half of them completely crippled
  • NCE, CNCI push for non-partisan Govt. as political instability to continue despite new Prez
    By Imesh Ranasinghe  The business community in Sri Lanka wants the immediate attention of the new elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe on reviving various sectors while fears remain that political instability will continue. Speaking to The Morning Business, Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) Chairman Canisius Fernando said that the chamber expects political instability to continue despite the appointment of Wickremesinghe as the new President, as it is evident that the “aragalaya” and the general public do not accept his leadership, even though, he added, Wickremesinghe appears competent to guide the country through the current situation, given his political experience. He noted that if a non-partisan Government is appointed under the new President rather than electing people from the same party, there would be some sort of national consensus reached. “The current most urgent issue for industries is the fuel problem, and secondly it’s the gas shortage; gas can be substituted, as there are many alternatives, but there is no such alternative to fuel,” he added.  Moreover, he said that there are no ways of importing or transporting materials to factories, firstly as there are no dollars or even rupees to import, and no fuel for transport. Fernando said that the shortage in materials has severely impacted the local industries, while export industries managed to import material with their dollar earnings, but not at the scale they used to. “We think that the industries cannot be revived in Sri Lanka at least for the next five months, and we expect that political stability will be delayed with the new President appointed,” he said. He said that without political stability, there cannot be any economic development. Also, speaking to us, National Chamber of Exporters Secretary General/CEO Shiham Marikar, while congratulating Wickremesinghe on becoming the new President, requested that he form a non-partisan Government. “It is very important, we say, to make sure that competent persons are appointed to ministries, especially ministries related to trade, as the country has to focus on exports,” he said. Marikar said that competent people should be appointed to the new Cabinet, and the new Government must make sure that wastage, corruption, and mismanagement are no more. Sri Lanka Chamber of Small and Medium Industries President Prof. Rohan De Silva said that the Chamber expects the new President to look after the SME sector, which is the backbone of Sri Lanka’s economy. He said that half of the SME industries are completely crippled at the moment, while some are virtually closed, putting the Sri Lankan labour force out of jobs. He urged the new President to present an immediate plan to revive the SME industries that have closed or are on the verge of closing down, and present a policy plan targeting the SME sector in the country for the next 5-10 years. He said the SME sector, which is the bread and butter of any economy in the world, has been neglected for a very long time in Sri Lanka.


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