“Great captains of industry are as rare as great generals”
- William Graham Sumner
The background to this story comes from the Government mining and exporting Ilmenite to Japan from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The Japanese Government, was so pleased with Sri Lanka’s Ilmenite that Japan wanted more and more of it!
The real story was that Japanese were wanting high quality Sri Lankan Ilmenite to be as a raw material for the Japanese production of Titanium, which is a tremendous value addition and which would fetch a much higher foreign exchange value. However, patriotic public servants who had the country’s economic interests at heart, put pressure on successive Governments to follow this process.
But as usual, it fell on deaf years! Politicians, were more interested in bickering at each other, debating about Devolution and Right to Information and others rather than think of national interests in developing the country’s economic potential to its fullest. There are efforts presently to exploit these options by the Sri Lanka’s private sector after the lapse of six decades! Its better late than never!
Ilmenite is a black iron-titanium oxide with a chemical composition of FeTiO3. Ilmenite is the primary ore of titanium, a metal needed to make a variety of high-performance alloys. Most of the Ilmenite mined worldwide is used to manufacture titanium dioxide, TiO2, an important pigment, whiting and polishing abrasive.
Just to give an indication of the differences in the prices after the value addition, the latest price of Ilmenite is around $ 130 per tonne, while processed Titanium Dioxide is an much as US $ 1200-1500 per tonne! Manaccite Ilmenite is said to be US $ 40-50 per tonne while Titanium Dioxide is at US $ 400-425 per tonne! Sri Lanka very nearly missed the bus for well over six decades!
Similarly, from Graphite to Graphene which is harder than diamond yet more elastic than rubber; tougher than steel yet lighter than aluminium. Graphene is the strongest known material.
Similarly, certain tomato additives which are heavily used in cooking, which have been hitherto imported and found on the supermarket shelves in Colombo, could also be manufactured here, with value addition which will also boost tomato being grown here with minimum wastage in the product due to perishing.
The Government, under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has set up two Ministries, one for Agricultural Exports, headed by Minister Ramesh Pathirana and another one under Minister Prasanna Ranatunga for Industrial Exports.
The beleaguered Opposition political parties that have been so critical about even such an innocuous proposal as painting the walls of Colombo and other areas, are bound to ask in Parliament, post January 3, as to why there are two Ministries, one for Industrial Exports and the for Agriculture Exports! They would come with the smart idea that these two Ministries could have come under one banner and why two or save one single Ministry for all Exports!
This columnist will give a technical reply to them, before these so called pseudo critiques will end up with the embarrassment of literally and metaphorically looking for “ sili sili” ( Poly Propylene) shopping bags to hide what was left of their faces! Just to merely justify and prove to them, that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is no mug and that he has done his homework, being the technocrat that he has proved to him to be!
The reason for the creation of a separate Ministry for Agricultural Exports is that the documentation and other processes should be different from the ones of Industrial Exports.
Agricultural Exports could require refrigeration and reefer containers and packaging could require different types of legislation and different documentation, different from Industrial Exports.
President Rajapaksa has displayed a passion for the development of agriculture. Now with the creation of two Ministries for Industrial and Agriculture, the possibilities are innumerable. This is also a creation of possibilities for numerous employment opportunities.
This columnist, in a previous article, wrote about the virtues of increasing sugarcane production in the country in an interview with founding Director of the Sugarcane Research Institute Dr. Nandesri (fondly Nande) Dharmawardena, a Scotland’s Dundee University PhD Holder in Bio Chemical Physiology, who extolled the virtues of enhancing the sugarcane production with the advantages of saving up to US $ 300 million in foreign exchange. That is not all.
He also stressed that a record 43 products could be manufactured for both local and export markets, and it would be ideal for the creation of industrial townships! But as usual, true to form like everything else about the Yahapalanaya Government, that too, fell on deaf years! So, much for Yah(M)apalanaya or Y(W)ahapalanaya!!
Some of the other possibilities are the creation of Export Promotion Villages which was the brainchild of former Minister of Trade and Shipping Lalith Athulathmudali. Possibilities are now there for the creation of zones to grow, say mangoes in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts, extract sugar syrup and export it with a tremendous value addition. Also the same could be followed in, say, the Kandy and Kalutara Districts for Magoosteens.
The examples are numerous. But, as the great adage goes, “none are so blind as those with eyes, who refuse to see”!
The Government should do well in taking industry and trade to the periphery which will also reduce unemployment and fortifying the rural economy which would change its landscape. Employees will also have the advantage of travelling from home and returning in the night without having to look for accommodation in Colombo and the Western Province.
There are disparities in the regional GDP growth rates in the provinces vis a vis the Western Province which led to the now well known axiom Milk for Colombo and Cucumber for the Village (Colombata Kiri and Gamata Kekiri )
Incentives should also be given to the private sector for exports in the same manner as China and India. It is also to the credit of the Apparel Sector to have reached the US $ 5 billion export revenue target without any incentives from any Government up to now.
The possibilities are endless with the creation of two Ministries for both Industrial and Agriculture Exports.
The President and two line Ministers should meet the private sector delegates and hold discussions about the future, which should also buttress the government’s strategy of reaching the 6.5% Government’s targeted economic growth rate from 2020.