The government had identified that dispute resolution in business should be settled quickly and steps are being taken in this regard, Attorney-at-Law and Member of Parliament representing the Colombo district, MP Madhura Withanage told the Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) monthly meeting.
He said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that any legal dispute among the business community should be settled in less than three months.
Withanage said that one reason for the delay in settling dispute resolution in Sri Lanka was the limited number of commercial High Courts and steps are now being taken to set up more.
He said that the Government has given top priority towards this as delay in dispute resolution creates a negative point when foreign investors look at investing in Sri Lanka.
He said after the economic crisis many parliamentarians are now seriously looking at promoting business and investments as they personally experienced the crisis and have understood the importance of creating a healthy business environment to increase investments to stop a repeat of an economic crisis.
“We definitely see a mind-set change and even among some of the senior politicians and ministers. Only a handful of them have not fallen in line.”
He also said that eradicating corruption too is now a hot topic among parliamentarians and added that the present laws are sufficient to curb them. “Only the implementation steps should be updated.”
COYLE President Rasith Wickremasinghe said that they have made many recommendations to the Government to improve the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings for Sri Lanka. “We are pleased to note that some of these proposals are being addressed.”
“The recommendations and remedial action we have put forward are based on solid business acumen, not based on satisfying political needs, it is not based on satisfying individual agendas.”
“We have also reached out to trade missions, funding agencies and numerous diplomatic missions including foreign investors who are exiting the country, prospective investors who want to invest in Sri Lanka but have second thoughts, to understand the bottlenecks we have.”
“Whatever roadmap the Government chooses to execute cannot be done with this setup.”
“We remain positive that the Government having reached out to stakeholders like us, means that they are willing to listen to credible chambers and private sector institutions.”
COYLE said that the Government should set up a separate working group or committee empowered with decision-making capability over a wide range of institutions.