The government will provide the necessary impetuous for the growth of exports and increase market share in the European Union (EU). It is ideal that the European Union companies have set up branches in Sri Lanka, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama told guests at the ‘Sri Lanka the Next Asian Economic Miracle’ conference in Colombo last week.
Sri Lanka will get multiple benefits as a result of the lifting of the European Union fishing ban. This is the time to exploit the situation, he said.
The European Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka and the European Union Delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives organized the conference.
“The country needs to be more competitive. We are aiming at improving the World Bank’s ease of doing business index and have an ambitious task of jumping 40 places by 2020 by eliminating unnecessary rules, regulations and barriers. However, we need to improve our productivity where we will be able to harness our true potential,” he said.
One of the key drivers of the economy is the tourism sector. “We have enormous potential and we need to work towards unleashing opportunities. The benefits of the European Union granting the GSP plus facility could be enhanced by being more competitive in the market,” he said.
Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Mangala Samaraweera said, “Sri Lanka is envisioning an export-oriented economy and this goes back to many decades. In the early years it was 25 percent of the GDP and later came down to 12 percent of the GDP. The open economy in the 1977 resulted in 30 percent of the GDP being exports.
The second wave saw an export growth of 33 percent to GDP and since then GDP to exports fell relatively in the years that followed. In mid 2000, a noticeable orientation to a more protectionism to domestic production saw the exports fall, he said.
“Funding by the domestic sector economic development model the country experimented with, needs radical change. It needs to tap external resources to reach 6 to 7 percent economic growth rate and sound macro economic policies and FDIs,” he said.
The Minister said that we need to look at new ways of tapping taxes. The policy stability is very important in this regard and the key commitment of the government is the clear understanding of the policies. We need to mobilize investment to take Sri Lanka forward, he said.
Sri Lanka should look at investing in human capital to drive the competitive export led economy. The key areas of concern are the fiscal consolidation, reforms and trade policies and legal and judicial reforms, he said.
“The government is concentrating on several new areas to strengthen the economy and increasing tax revenue on a priority basis. We are looking at relaxing some of tough and uncalled –for business regulations to simplify business. We will bring in more investor-friendly regulations shortly,” he said.