Comment - Business climate faces new challenge

The business climate in the country is facing a new challenge today after the LTTE started to play havoc with its secretly acquired light aircraft. It started with the first attack on the Air Force base on March 26 and last week on the Colombo city, targeting several main economic installations.

The biggest issue is the frequent closure of the only international airport in the country. Similarly the risk faced by civilian flights has been highlighted with Cathay Pacific and Emirates already suspending operations to Colombo. Some other airlines have decided to operate only during the daytime.

This affects the business traveller who is on a tight schedule as well as migrant workers. In addition the perishables being exported too suffer due to the sudden cancellation of flights.

After the latest attempt of the terrorists on prime targets in the Colombo city and the counter attack by the security forces the hotels and all business places in the city face a serious risk. This situation affects the tourism and hotel industry especially and all economic activities in the country.

The threat of terrorism always loomed large on the horizon and it is not strange to those doing business in Sri Lanka and especially in Colombo for the past several decades.

Businesses in this country have always taken all such risks and costs into their accounts. However, the business community or even the security authorities did not anticipate the new air threat.

The new security challenges will no doubt change the political views on the national question and peace. Earlier the threat was remote for ordinary people as terrorists targeted the security forces or politicians. Economic and security nerve centres of the country were under tight security.

Repercussions of any terrorist attack were quickly overcome and everybody got over the incident quickly and went about their work in the usual manner. However, today we are all exposed to the threat and the danger is like the sword of Damocles over us.

Earlier, after every LTTE attack all stakeholders in the civil society appealed to resume the peace talks.

Today if we follow this path we have to recognise the LTTE's air power and be ready to face a similar threat at any moment. To restore safety and confidence the government should immediately neutralise the air capabilities of the LTTE as there is no alternative.

Nobody can dispute the reality on the ground today and nobody should attempt to do so. The authorities have to take the challenge and make the people aware of the situation. They should make people aware of what they should do in time of an emergency.

It was disheartening to read headlines in the international media during the last couple of weeks.

Foreign news agencies carried pictures of the Colombo city lit up with gunfire of the security forces. How can we expect tourists or investors to come here if this kind of reports appear in the media.

We have to act fast. We are losing our competitiveness in all business sectors every second under the new situation.

The Chennai airport says that it is ready to accommodate civilian aircraft diverted from Colombo. This could be expected in every business such as tourism and shipping that are highly competitive among the countries in the region.

Today our political leaders can blame one another for the security lapses. But the LTTE did not acquire its air capability over-night.

All former governments who handled the issue are responsible for the LTTE build up. The LTTE has achieved everything they wanted under the guise of peace.