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by Ranil Wijayapala

The thrust of government policy should be directed at enhancing and improving human resources which is one of the key strengths, through the modernisation of education and making it relevant to society, Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy, Investment Promotion and Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said yesterday.

Prof Peiris made these observations delivering the keynote address at the 13th National Productivity and Quality Awards ceremony at the BMICH.

The Minister said that it was not enough to rest on our laurels of the past as money spent on education as a percentage of GDP in Sri Lanka is one percentage point below the South Asian region average of 3.8 per cent.

The Minister also said that it was not enough to concentrate on education standards. The usefulness of education should also be focused in this regard for the people to take benefit of it.

The Minister said this is a contributary factor for improving productivity and quality of the human resource in the country and a practical step towards achieving levels of productivity within reasonable time frame.

Young persons who have shown competency in being selected to university but denied opportunities in the university education system should also be given a chance for university education enabling them to follow evening classes.

The Minister said that equal opportunities should also be given for all the people and in the sphere of economic development of the country.

In this regard the Enterprise Development Ministry was working on a blueprint to establish five economic and industrial zones in different areas in the country as the UNF government has placed priority on developing regions specially the remote areas.

This is as the UNF government is interested in providing opportunities for all young persons in the country breaking the barriers between the rural parts and the urban areas of the country.

The accessibility for opportunities is also another important factor in improving the economy. Providing fiscal incentives from time to time is not enough to encourage the investors to locate their industries in remote parts of the country.

Accessibility should be improved by developing the infrastructure to enable investors to establish factories outside the urban areas.

The empowerment of the people is also another factor that will lead to the development of the country. The people at grassroots level should be given an opportunity to provide leadership for the community.

The present electoral system does not allow the rural youth who demonstrate qualities of leadership to give leadership even for their region as they have to cover a wide area to become leaders due to this adverse electoral system.

A sound environment feasible for improving the economy should be created by evading instability and the unpredictable situation in the country.

The Minister said due to the peace process initiated by the Government the prospects of peace are far better than ever before. It will not be a smooth process and we will have snarls and pitfalls but we will not let this opportunity slip through our fingers.

Minister of Industries, Rohitha Bogollagama said that there is a need for a new industrial culture to increase productivity and changing the attitudes of the people.

He was of the view that absenteeism, lethargy and conflicts have to be addressed with a new attitude with a focus on productivity and economic development.

Minister of Employment and Labour, Mahinda Samarasinghe said that a comprehensive plan of action will be developed under the 100 day program with the cooperation of all stakeholders to handle and improve productivity.

Once the comprehensive plan of action is approved by the Cabinet it will be made the National Plan of Action for Productivity, the Minister added.

This year the National Quality Awards were won by three service organisations, Lanka Electricity Company, (Large Scale Service Sector Category) MTN Networks (Pvt) Ltd (Large Scale Service Sector Category) and Logistics International Ltd (Small Scale Service Sector Category).

National Productivity Awards for the Manufacturing Sector were won by Leisuretime (Private) Ltd (Large category) and Graphics Systems (Pvt) Ltd (Medium and Small category).

Castle Street Hospital for Women won the national productivity award for the service sector.

The National Productivity and Quality Awards ceremony was conducted by the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM), National Productivity Secretariat (NPS) and the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI).

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