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| Sunday, 4 July 2004 |
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National Council for Economic Development to push "Rata Perata" by Hiran H.Senewiratne The Government has set up the National Council for Economic Development (NCED), a permanent Secretariat, to improve policy formulation and to implement those policies within a well- coordinated framework, Treasury Secretory Dr P.B Jayasundera said. He said that this Secretariat would be managed by a team of well-qualified professionals drawn form both public and private sectors to carry out the government's "Rata Perata" concept in a more meaningful way. The NCED was developed on a broad framework on the basis of implementing the "Rata Perata" concept, he said. "In the past, under various successive governments the country was unable to implement State policies in a proper way," Dr Jayasundera said . Over the past years governments have set up task forces having recognising this and good lessons have been learnt from those experience,he said. These drafted policies would be reviewed under the current environmental situation to face any challenge, Dr Jayasundera added. The NCED would function under the Presidential Secretariat and this would enable the private sector participate in policy formulation and implementation activities , he said. This unit will also coordinate donor activities and will provide a forum for the private sector to take up their concerns on any unresolved issue. It will also promote private and public sector partnership in policy formulation and provide a conduit for the private sector and other stakeholders for regular dialogue with the government, Dr Jayasundera said. He said that NCED would be governed by a board which would be an apolitical body and which would include professionals like outgoing Hayleys Chairman Sunil Mendis, Stassen Chairman Harry Jayawardena and eminent economist Dr W.D Lakshman. He said that line ministries and agencies will be empowered to perform their day- to- day activities efficiently and respond to the needs of the people in a timely manner. The NCED is playing a complementary role to line ministries and agencies in helping to remove road blocks. The NCED will be responsible for the formulation of national policies involving all stakeholders and monitoring and implementation of such policies through the relevant line ministries and agencies, he said. The NCED will consist of six divisions initially, including Policy Reform, Financial, Development Sector, Public Utilities, Lead Infrastructure Project and International Corporation, he added. Each division will have different working clusters which would spell out policies for implementation he said. Currently there are three clusters functioning under these divisions - Apparel, Tourism and Small and Medium Enterprise sectors. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Government of Japan will lend their support to build the capacity of this entity,Dr Jayasundera concluded. |
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