Government's duty is to formulate corporate sector friendly policies

BY HIRAN H. Senewiratne

THE public sector has been reformed or restructured to help implements private sector friendly policies of the Government' said Premier Mahinda Rajapakse.

He was addressing the business today Top 10 Awards Ceremony at the Hilton last Friday.

The Government's responsibility is to formulate private sector friendly policies to reach their goals, he said.

The private sector is still hemmed in, to a larger extent, by an environment that is restrictive. This must be transformed to achieve its objectives, he said.

Prime Minister Rajapakse called upon the captains of business and the professional communities to guide him in drafting solutions to the development problem. 'Please reach out to me- the doors of my house will be always open to you.

Rajapakse invited corporate sector in an effort to evolve a new political culture in the country to develop the country's economy. The Prime Minister requested the big players of the corporate sector, to help and guide the small and medium scale businesses of our country, to grow.

Meanwhile BT's Keith Bernard said: "To pick the best, as the starting point, we consider the 100 most traded stocks in the market for the Particular year.

So we know that the performing companies obtain a listing not only to secure some of the benefits of being listed. From among them we select those with the highest 25 sales turnover.

The reason for this is because we have to compare like with like, otherwise we will be comparing apples and oranges. But sales alone don't determine the best performers, because profits determine shareholder wealth.

These are, turnover, growth in turnover, profits, growth in profits, value addition, value added per employee, earnings per share, market capitalization, return on equity and value of shares transacted.