‘Free and open trade a must for int’l business’

Opening the 14th annual International Conference on Business Management on Friday, leading academics called for free and open trade in Sri Lanka.

“If there is no free entry and exit of the market, we cannot have a perfect globalization,” said University of Sri Jayewardenepura Vice Chancellor Sampath Amarathunga.The university’s Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce sponsored the event Colombo.

“We want you all to align with us in our goal to become a developed country by 2025,” Vice Chancellor Amarathunga told the audience.Harvard University Professor Patrick Mendis, the event’s first keynote speaker, said Sri Lanka had fallen behind neighboring countries like Singapore in terms of its economy and development.

“Singapore wanted to be Sri Lanka in the 1960’s,” he said. “Now we want to be like Singapore or Dubai or Abu Dhabi, the link between East and West.” He urged business and political leaders to follow the policy of “trading with all, entangling with none.”

“This has been the balance of Sri Lanka’s history,” he said. The event hosted academics from both Sri Lanka and abroad and focused on the theme of “corporate resilience and growth potential.

“I believe these ideas will contribute to nation-building at large as well as the field of scholarly knowledge,” said Management Faculty Dean Anura Kumara.