Private-public sector clasping of hands vital to improve business

Compiled by Walter Liyanarachchi

Speech delivered by Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Karu Jayasuriya at the key persons’ forum conducted by the Small and Medium Enterprises Developers (SMED)

This topic given to me “Making public private partnership meaningful and the strategy of the Government” is a very important topic and a relevant subject today. All the successful nations always maintain a very strong public sector and private sector combination.

When we look at the pre and post independence where Sri Lanka started with the public sector, we had a very disciplined and a model public sector. Sri Lanka at that time was treated as a country having the best public sector in Asia. Lot of public sector officers sent out of the country for various official purposes since they were very capable.

Therefore we had a well managed social system and a well managed economic system. Even during the pre independence era too we had very efficient public officers under the British rulers who loved this country.

Construction of railway lines and highways witness their service. Talking about the private sector that time, the private sector was confined to the entrepreneurs - European companies and they too served the countryto the best of their ability although they were foreigners.

However the private sector performance at that time was very active but the indigenous private sector was not that active.

Since independence the National Chamber of Commerce was established to look after the indigenous business and to compete with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. But today all these chambers are working together with harmony.

Successive Governments very often talked about the private sector and considered it as the engine of growth. The private sector has been respectable and playing a meaningful role in the economy of the country. But it a misery that even after 60 years of independence this country has not achieved much other than what was left over by British.

In order to face the high inflation and high cost of electricity supply, the previous government sought remedies by setting up of a coal power plant in 1992. But the project had to abandon due to various objections. But the present government could go ahead with that dead project.

In 1994 the Government which came to power planned to set up a coal power station in Norachcholai. And this project too had to abandoned due to different ideologies and objections.

All was set to commence Kotmale project in 2002 and was planned to commission in 2006.

Even invitation cards were printed to lay the foundation in 2002. But suddenly due to petty political reasons this project was stopped and the country and this nation is paying for it.

The other factor is we have not utilised fully the potential of the Private Sector. I have been in the private sector for 32 years and I have seen their capabilities and the great potential of this sector.

If we fully harness the private sector potential to build harbours, generate power, improve leisure sector, and the Government and other projects with national values, we could go ahead with vast improvements.

Sri Lankan entrepreneurs have started business in other countries too. People in those countries talk about the capabilities of Sri Lankan entreprenares.

As far as the public sector in concerned there is unfortunately a vast decline in discipline and efficient running and the reason could be attributed to as the total politicisation.

The 17th amendment is not a perfect piece of document and all parties should get together to make some reforms, but there were many problems to have a consensus.

However we succeeded to a greater extent and the amended reforms gave a lot of participation to public servants. And there are several proposals that had come before the Parliamentary Select Committee but all parties could not get together to modify further the 17th amendment.

Electoral reforms is another unfortunate thing before us. The preferential voting system has created lot of problems and that is why Electoral Reforms Committee is trying to bring general resolutions to rectify these defaults.

German advices were sought to make these matters straight but due to various disagreements the Parliament was not able to proceed ahead.

If this German systems were adopted we could bring about a cultured political system enabling better people to come into politics. In the public sector monthly wages are paid whether they work or not which money is collected from various taxes paid by the public but most of them are not concerned about the work.

Yet we see quite capable people in public sector though the amount is small. Various governments which came to power tried take steps to change this pattern in the public sector in order to purify the present culture.

During the short period in office as the Minister of Public Administration we have been able to make significant changes in the public sector. I must thank the dedicated officers including the secretary who supported to make the venture a success.

Every Wednesday the Minister, non Cabinet Minister, Secretary meet the people to look into their problems and to solve them instantly which proved success.

“Janatha Sathkaraka Sevava” is another innovative effort to go to the public. We go to the remote areas with a full implement of officers who are well experienced and having a vast knowledge about various public matters.

We went to Moneragala, Puttalam, Tissamaharama, Polonnaruwa, and N’Eliya and we found 20,000 to 30,000 people coming to get their problems solved which were dragging for number of years.

We went to Matara and met 25,000 people during the two day deliberations and we could settle 17,000 problems instantly. And also with the collaboration of the private sector 6000 jobs were provided and that was a great success.

The next achievement is giving a time frame for Govt. offices to solve public problems. A person going to a kachcheri to get his birth certificate within a couple of minutes he can obtain his birth certificate. If one goes to a Pradeshiya office to get his requirement fulfilled today he will have to spend a short period of time.

We try to keep a further step. A person in Colombo District can get his birth certificate from any Divisional Secretariat according to the present planning since we have computerised all the details of all the people in the district. Today the Pradeshiya Saba or Divisional Secretariat are clean and good as a private sector bank.

The pensions department is completely modernised. Even the pensioners abroad can get fulfilled their requirements within a short time. I am not telling that everything is perfectly working, there can be constraints or drawbacks but this bulk of this burdens of the public are redeemed.

Land registration delays are now eliminated. A person can register his land within 100 hours. All these services could be achieved due to the team spirit of the members of the institutions.

Our motive is to build a public sector which is capable, service oriented and people-friendly.

There was a decree in last July by the President that within 180 days the civil life should be restored in the east and 22 Ministries are working together to follow the Presidents directive.

An efficient team is visiting Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa to meet the public, luminaries, religious leaders and consult various other knowledgeable persons to do a study as to how the civilian life could be restored.

It’s very unfortunate that a handful of people began to misguide the people saying that this exercise is a Sinhalisation or tried to mislead people saying that our attempt is to gain a political mileage but we were able to convince the people that this is a non-political public service.

We have 22 areas to cover in the east and in some areas we have surpassed the target and in some areas 92-95% covered.

People living in extreme end do not have schools no hospitals, no infrastructure facilities. But when we go there today people welcome as with a smile and I won’t say that all the people are housed but most of them.

Few areas we could not approach because land mines were in existence and those places must be cleared soon. By middle of January we can say that the civil administration in restored.

Paddy and maise cultivators are today happy because they can expect good harvest and even the fisher folk is happy since they fish without any hindrance. To achieve all these we had the private sector co-operation. If we need to have a prosperous country the public and private sector co-operation should exist.

As far as the infrastructure development the government has kept few steps forward. Hambantota port, coal power project, airports road network and various other projects are few of them. I hope within the next couple of years we can meet the power demand which is vitally important to private sector industries.

Another important factor is the oil exploration. There are a number of research reports to say that there are adequate oil or gas deposits in Sri Lanka and the government is going ahead to unearth them.

Therefore we are quite convinced that oil deposits are in existence which are commercially viable and this resource could be attributed as the fortune of the unborn generation.There is another interesting opportunity.

That is to build a bridge between the Rameswaram and Mannar. History records show that king Gajaba built a bridge between these two ends.

This effort was made sometime back but had to abandon the idea since the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jeyalalitha protested saying that it would pave the way for LTTE cadres to infiltrate into Tamil Nadu.

The bridge will have to cover 20 kilometres and this would enable to gain access to 22 countries and also this bridge will take as to a new world. Russia is in one side and Iran is in another side. And the bridge can be built without government money.

We should not forget that our country was crushed undergoing two insurgencies, one is in 1971 and again in 1989. There should be a fair distribution of wealth and other needs of this society should be fulfilled equally and also we do not want to have another insurgencyin the future.

To create such a situation this government alone cannot stand and the private sector which is considered as this engine of the growth should clasp hands with the government. Therefore the private sector has a prime duty to perform.

The ethnic problem which is the soaring problem is still dragging and the solutions should be sought by all the parties concerned whether they are green, blue or red and coming to an agreement as to how the power should be devolved because the people living in the North and East are having certain dignity which they deserve. The terrorism must be wiped out because there is a vast difference between terrorism and devolution of power.

By the third week of January APRC is expected to submit their proposals and there should be a reasonable dialogue shedding all party, race and religious differences and should have a common agreement or a consensus among all the sectors in the community to solve the ethnic question.

In conclusion I wish to say that there is a huge potential between the private and public sector and those resources should be used properly and it should be used without tug-of-war. My versions may not be agreeable or may not be perfect. Howeveer those areas can be sorted out by discussion. We should not hesitate to do that and come to conclusions agreeable to all sections.