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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Appeal for mobile marketing units by Lionel Yodhasinghe Private sector should rush mobile marketing units with stocks of immediate goods to the Southern and Eastern coastal towns as the commercial activities have come to a standstill in these areas after the Tsunami devastation, residents in the suburbs of Galle said. "Otherwise those who live in the city limits and close interior of these areas would be affected and sought relief as there is no mode of buying or selling of their day to day needs", proprietor of Vinns Restaurant in Galle Iraj Gunesekera told the Sunday Observer. Gunasekera whose entire business was washed away by the waters on Sunday said that the city bazaar, fish market and other commercial areas were destroyed and markets have to be restarted from the rubble. One cannot imagine how long it will take to begin this market as the clearing process is moving at a snail space. CEO of European Institute of Professional Education Vijitha Walgamage who visited Galle said that the alternative is to rush some mobile units to the area until the local businessmen reestablish their activities. Or else, residents in surrounding areas will face a food shortage and another burden will befall on the Government to provide relief to them too in the face scarcity of food and medicine. Some roads are still impassable for vehicles to carry goods and there are no government commercial institutions like Sathosa to look into this matter so the private sector should take this task seriously as a corporate social responsibility and intervene to provide immediate goods like dry rations and medicine through a mobile marketing system. This would prevent unscrupulous forces trying to exploit the affected at this juncture by selling goods at exorbitant prices, he said. Food and drug companies with expanded distribution network can now coordinate with respective authorities such as the National Disaster Management Center of the Social Services Ministry and the Special Relief Task Force of the Presidential Secretariat and send their vehicles to these areas and start the service which would be a relief and service to the consumer in this hour of need, he said. Walgamage said it is impossible to begin commercial activities in these dead cities until the basic infrastructure such as buildings, electricity and running water services are restored after the Tsunami devastation which killed over 21,000. |
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