CHOGM, an ideal platform:

Global opinion can swing towards Sri Lanka - Dr Sarath Amunugama

By Uditha Kumarasinghe

Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance and Planning Minister, Dr.Sarath Amunugama said that CHOGM has provided the ideal opportunity to showcase our achievements, particularly the peace efforts. The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said that delegates, political leaders and media personnel can see for themselves and evaluate what is good and bad, so that they can make up their minds as to whether a fair judgment has been made regarding what has gone on in Sri Lanka up to now.

Dr.Amunugama said we have won the war against terrorism and we have already achieved permanent peace in the country.

This is the message that we have to give to the world. Today it is difficult to do this by ourselves without a key event like CHOGM, since the transnational media is powerful. It is also difficult for one country or its Media Ministry or External Affairs Ministry to take on the whole transnational network to project our achievements. It is better to harness global opinion as we are a free society and now the people can come and see for themselves the exact situation in Sri Lanka.

Excerpts of the interview.

Q: What would be the final success of CHOGM 2013, specially to Sri Lanka and other small developing members?

A: We have to remember that we have just emerged from 30 year war against terrorists. This is an abnormal situation for any country. We could not develop the country for about 30 years. We had a bad image globally for 30 years.

Because the international community avoids a country which is at a war. Now we have a good opportunity to project our achievements, particularly the peace efforts. We have won the war against terrorism and we have achieved permanent peace in the country. This is the message that we have to give to the world.

Today it is difficult to do this by ourselves without a key event like CHOGM. Because the transnational media is powerful today. It is difficult for one country or its Media Ministry or External Affairs Ministry to take on the whole transnational network to project our achievements. It is better to harness global opinion as we are a free society and the people can come and see for themselves the exact situation in Sri Lanka. CHOGM will pave the way to showcase our achievements. Delegates, political leaders and media personnel can come and take a look for themselves.

They can evaluate what is good and bad, so that they can make up their minds as to whether a fair judgment has been made regarding what has gone on in Sri Lanka up to now.

Q: Has the Commonwealth lost its vitality in view of the global commitment of the United Nations Organisation in economic, political and social affairs?

A: Today we live in a complex world. Many multinational and national institutions are operating in a modern world. So a country like Sri Lanka has to interact with all these agencies. We have to interact with the United Nations, the Non-Alignment Movement, the Commonwealth, SAARC and other financial institutions like World Bank, ADB and IMF. We also must learn to have complex responses. Today we live in a modern world. We can't think of what happened in the past and have a leisurely approach to global relations.

Because events are moving fast. What happens now in Sri Lanka becomes global news and it is something that the international media is looking for. We can already see with the prospects of CHOGM, Sri Lanka has drawn a lot of attention by way of television coverage, newspapers , magazines and social media. Some of it may be positive while some of it may be negative.

But the fact of the matter is that Sri Lanka has drawn a lot of interest. If we take tourism for example, today global tourism cannot be promoted unless there is large scale investment for publicity. Before they decide to travel there, people must know where the country is.

If they don't know about a country called Sri Lanka, they can't travel there. They are captive to traditional tourist destinations like Bali, Thailand, Spain, Portugal and the Maldives.

These are already in the global map. They create an instant response. Sri Lanka has to get into that link. This will be a good opportunity for people to focus attention. They can come and see the facilities available here. This will be of great importance, not only in the political arena but also in the economic aspect as well.

Q: The future of the Commonwealth appears to be rather dim due to the non-interest on the part of its leading powers. Your views?

A: If you look at the history of the Commonwealth, you can see that these were all countries which belonged to the British empire and during the colonial period the relationship was of a colonial power and colonised societies. But this whole concept has changed with independence particularly that of India followed by Asian countries and subsequently African and Caribbean countries. Of course, the British were shrewd or perceptive enough to understand that their traditional relationships cannot go

on in the modern world. Because our only relationship is not with the Commonwealth. We are members of other groupings as well. This grouping has an advantage for Britain because we have that common history. After all France is also doing something similar with the Francophone countries. They have shrewdly transited from being a colonial country to a country which has set up a network of relationships with their former colonies.

In that there are certain advantages.. Because we have a common history and common relationship with the UK. But we have to remember that a large number are small states either they are island states or located in oceans. They are establishing a character of their own like representatives of small states.

If we take the Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean, Pacific, some African countries and also countries like Sri Lanka and Seychelles, they all are small. But they have common problems. It is being transformed into a relationship where smaller countries can get together and find a voice. This does not mean this is the only organisation.

If we take the Non-Alignment Movement, this is a gathering of countries where most of the Commonwealth countries are involved. There are overlapping organisations, but no harm is done by continuing these relationships.

Q:Are we ready to exploit the business opportunities from the CHOGM Business Forum? What would be our priorities?

A: One thing is clear. We need to increase our Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs). The FDIs has been a dismal story when it comes to Sri Lanka. All the other countries in Asia have got 30 to 40 times more FDIs than Sri Lanka. For example China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar are FDI magnates. This is ironic because most of these countries had a hostile relationship particularly with the US and other Western countries. Some of them were at war.

But today they have forgotten that and they themselves have large scale investments particularly from US. We can't think of Chinese export oriented economy by discounting US investments. If somebody goes to Shanghai, he will see that they have set up the brand names of various companies. All the US brand names are advertised there. Most of US consumer products are made there by US companies. It is high time that Sri Lankans also get to know what is happening in the world.

Otherwise we can't improve our FDIs. There are some small political parties in Sri Lanka who are not aware of this. They think that everything can be done within Sri Lanka. But that is a very backward approach, not a realistic approach. We can't take the country on a growth path without that type of investments. So this would be a very good opportunity for Sri Lanka.

I must also say that the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) has also done well and they have identified so many projects. They can discuss with investors coming here. They will see what is happening in Sri Lanka. Today any visitor who comes to Sri Lanka is so impressed by the urban renewal programs, roads and other infrastructure development programs. These are visible.

But transformation in education and IT are not visible developments. Today the world is impressed when a country continues investing in the social sector. We are investing lot on education, health and social services. The world realises that the social sector should also be enhanced. If we take the US it is considered a haven of private investment. Under President Obama, they emphasise that the social sector as being the responsibility of the government.

We have to think of that. We are a good example and we have nothing to hide. Anybody can come here and freely move about and make up their own minds.

Q: Shouldn't India ignore the domestic compulsions and actively participate in CHOGM in the larger context of Commonwealth cooperation and as a regional power?

A: Of course that is a very loaded question. But we have to understand the complexity of the situation. Often the debate is extremede or the other. But India is a big power today. It has to take very responsible decisions. India is a country where so many distinct communities are interacting with each other.

In the future, my opinion is no single party will form a government in India. So governing India means that they will have to balance all that. India has also its regional responsibilities and they have to manage that. So wWe certainly hope that they will make their representation at CHOGM.

Q: The Opposition says that the budget deficit is getting wider due to escalating government expenditure and decline in tax concession and export revenue. Could you analyse this complex situation?

A: No, the fiscal gap is not getting wider. The ten percent gap which was recorded a decade ago is reduced systematically. This year the fiscal gap has come down from 6.7 percent to 5.8 percent. In the forthcoming Budget 2014, we are hope to contain it to 5 percent. The fiscal gap is being bridged. On the other hand, our revenues are going up and the expenditure is also increasing. But our target of the fiscal gap being contained to 5 percent will remain. So the gap is not widening.

Q: Most of the Western media including those of the likes as Callum Macrae can be said to be hired by the LTTE rump to publicise the alleged “killings and torture” in Sri Lanka when their troops killed dozens of civilians a day in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq. Would you like to enlighten us further on this?

A: Our position is that anybody can come and see the situation. We only want fair coverage. Certainly we have emerged from a war against terrorists. Now we must move forward and look at what the Government has achieved and see the tremendous investment in infrastructure which every foreign delegate including the UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay have remarked on.

They have said that we have made considerable gains in de-mining,construction of roads, ports, airports and building houses. An extensive reconstruction program has taken place. Latest statistics shows that province wise, the highest growth is reflected in the Northern Province and secondly in the Eastern Province. If we take the GDP province wise, the Northern and Eastern provinces have done extremely well during the past two years.

When look at the elections that were held in the North and the East, both have been a great success. In the past the biggest problem was the unit of devolution. Today we have clearly two different Provincial Councils, Chief Ministers and two different grouping of ministries.

They are functioning well. Before the Northern elections, people were saying that there will be violence and poll rigging and they went back to the old UNP days of setting fire to the Jaffna library. But nothing of that sort happened. The election results showed that there was a decisive victory by the TNA. That means nobody is obstructing the democratic process.

India and many countries in the West such as US have applauded this as a free and fair election.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has extended the hand of friendship. He has not obstructed the Northern Provincial Council or trip up their Chief Ministers. Even Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Vigneswaran was invited for the Cabinet meeting. Where in the world will you have an Opposition Chief Minister sitting inside the Cabinet Office discussing all those subjects once a month. These are very good signs. One has to be realistic. Very often these NGO and various advocacy groups take up extremist positions. Intellectually, that may be understandable.

But we have to think of practical realities. If we look at all the countries which have gone through a war, the period of rehabilitation and reconstruction is most impressive in Sri Lanka. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, I think we have nothing to be ashamed of.

Everybody can come and take a look. The general trend and the activity have been clearly in the area of rationality of trying to do our best.

Q: What are the prospects for more dynamic regional cooperation towards a stable market for our exports?

A: All the countries in the region are exporting to the West. Whether we like or not, US and the Europe are the main buyers of our products. This is true of China, Vietnam, Thailand, India and all other countries. When the wealth of the consumers in the West and the European Union is considerably higher than the income in other parts of the world, naturally these products go there. But since the downturn and the financial crisis in the West, all these countries have been trying hard to reassess this situation and at least lower their exposure to US and the West by way of trade. This is a very difficult thing to do. What are the regional markets? Now two countries are at an advantage. There is a huge domestic market in India and China. They can piggy bag on the domestic market. But the countries like Sri Lanka cannot think of a domestic market. Local market cannot sustain that type of enterprise.

I heard recently a JVPer is saying that they can have factories in every village. This is the same absurd comment that Mao Tse Tung said. Who is going to buy the products of those factories? I would say that is sort of economic cretinism. But those who understand this knows we have to seek markets. We have to have appropriate strategies. One of the big issues faced is that how do we shift our export priorities, join the value chain and look at the domestic market. Because we have a very small market. So we have to think of the regional market and the huge markets of China and India. We have to get into that value chain. I think Asia will have to look into the developed economies for their trade. How can we sell tea in Asia? Because they all are tea producers. So we have to sell tea to a place where they are not producing tea.

Q: Do you think the proposed Leadership Council could bring back life to UNP unless and until a people friendly face is grafted to its high command?

A: I don't want to comment on the internal crisis of the UNP. But my personnel view is that this is just a cosmetic change. This is the same old lady who is putting on makeup. But I don't think that may be enough.By Uditha Kumarasinghe Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance and Planning Minister, Dr.Sarath Amunugama said that CHOGM has provided the ideal opportunity to showcase our achievements, particularly the peace efforts. The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said that the delegates, political leaders and media personnel can see for themselves and evaluate what is good and bad, so that they can make up their minds as to whether a fair judgment has been made regarding what has gone on in Sri Lanka up to now.