Lanka's foreign worker remittances could well be Rs 900 billion

by Elmo Leonard

Sri Lanka's foreign worker remittances, now, Rs. 240 billion (rupees 109 to a US dollar) per annum could easily reach Rs. 900 billion within a few years if the unskilled workforce leaving the country is trained to undertake higher income jobs.

This proposition was put out by the incoming president of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) Devanayagam Eassuwaren at the 48th AGM of NCCSL.

It was necessary that Sri Lanka establishes institutions to train Advanced level qualified youth who do not gain admission to university, in skills needed to undertake higher-paying jobs overseas, Eassuwaren said.

Sri Lanka should also invest in IT education where skilled workers could find gainful employment overseas, Eassuwaren said.

He urged government to encourage the private sector to set up quality higher education institutions so that large numbers of rural youth, not qualified to get into local universities and who cannot afford to go overseas for education due to high cost, could benefit.

This must be looked at from the angle of developing human resources. It would help overcome many social problems such as youth unrest through frustration, Eassuwaren said.

The authorities should also teach English to IT students, whereby they could undertake software programming for export. In India, enormous strides had been taken in training its youth in the skills needed to develop software, and a knowledge in English, to carry out such work, Eassuwaren said.

NCCSL was set up over 50 years ago as a lobby group to look after the interests of the local business community, at a time when Britishers were dominating business, being mainly British owned companies in plantations, making it difficult for local businessmen to operate.

In this environment, Sri Lankan businessmen such as Robert Senanayake, Sir Cyril de Zoysa and Faleel A. Gaffoor and N. Sellamuttu came together. Roland Wanigatunga, another founder member of NCCSL was present at the AGM in review.

Today, NCCSL maintained its position as a leading business promotion organisation, in Sri Lanka and abroad. It has 425 corporate members of the category extra large, large and medium. NCCSL serves 20 sector associations and more than 2,500 SMEs spread throughout the country.

NCCSL had set up a desk to promote the 300 factories program of the government, to take business to the hinterland, Eassuwaren said.

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