|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Enormous potential to develop key sectors - Peter Harrold Every economy has good policies and good people and if the policy frame is sound and there is political stability there can be tremendous growth. At present the Tourism, Agriculture and Information Technology (IT) sectors have enormous potential for growth, said Country Director World Bank Peter Harrold. He was addressing a Breakfast Meeting on the theme "World Bank perspective on the Sri Lankan economy and its challenges". He said though tourism has taken a severe blow due to the tsunami there is enormous potential to move away from low cost beach holidays to nature culture holiday travel. In the area of agriculture the growth is unexploited and it is a very healthy area to develop as the water resources are enormous. But the sector is unproductive since the technology is old while the varieties of seeds used are low yielding. He said the IT sector will also be one of the higher growing sectors in the future. Answering questions he said the business community should be advocates of the peace process while looking after the individual businesses. Looking after the individual businesses will help solve the problem of unemployment. Businessmen should also be good corporate citizens with regard to tax payments as this will help increase the revenue of the government. Harrold said the fiscal impact of the tsunami is less than 1 percent of the GDP though the human impact is great. Reconstruction should be organised rapidly and it will result in a boom in the construction industry. Construction related activities will increase but it will result in a slow down of other development activities. Therefore capital expenditure will decline. The donor community and the private sector are generous and they will provide the finances. The group of developed countries has offered a moratorium but it has to be viewed carefully as it has to be paid off at a later date. The good news is that the country can ease domestic borrowing because of the moratorium. He said that there is a growing inequality in the economy because of the disparity of growth in the western province and the other provinces. The industrial and services sector went through massive reforms since the open economy which has resulted in the sectors doing extremely well. The agriculture sector has been stagnant and has not undergone reforms. Therefore the reforms need to be accelerated to increase growth in the rural sector. It is not only in the conflict area that there is poverty as there is poverty in the south as well since the government is not in a position to adopt anti poverty measures due to shortages of finances. When fiscal capability is constrained it is difficult to reduce poverty, the Country Director said. - Surekha |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
