No future without exports - Harsha

There is a lack of focused policy on exports. It is necessary that we concentrate on exports, exports and more exports. It is important to understand that we have no future without it. That is why we are focusing on exports, Deputy Minister of Policy Planning Dr. Harsha de Silva told the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Exporters Association of Sri Lanka recently.

Sri Lanka cannot be considered in isolation. Sri Lanka must be considered together with a list of countries which have taken advantage of the imaginative dynamics of growth or trade. Be it Dubai, Malaysia or Vietnam.

The Malaysians understood that you have to focus on exports, competitive value-added exports, he said.

The President quoting John F Kennedy said that the problems in the world cannot be solved by sceptics and cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. You need men who can dream of things that never were.

“You have to dream of things that never were. I am no John F Kennedy but I dream of things that never were,” he said.

“I asked the Chairman what the US $ 20 billion in export revenue translates to in terms of percentage of GDP, because the problem in this country is the focus on exports as the percentage of exports has been coming down continuously. He referred to a figure of 17 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2014. But it was 34 percent in 2000 and has been coming down,” Dr de Silva said.

“If you look at the policy statement in the manifesto, it is clear, that we want to become the most competitive economy in this part of the world. The word competitive economy naturally suggests that it is a comparison between and among countries. When we say, most competitive, it means most competitive in relation to our competitors. We are not looking at Sri Lanka as an island nation of 20 million people. We are looking at Sri Lanka as a dynamic player in the global place. That is the difference,” he said.

Foreign exchange remittances have now reached almost $ 7 billion and it’s a sad story. Of the $ 10 billion in exports, textiles and apparel amount to $ 5 billion. Value addition might be half of that. So how much of value do these exports bring in?

What is the net export? That is what you need to consider, because the net value of remittances are the hard work of the poor, low-end workers particularly mothers, wives, sisters, some of whom are being tortured and killed. Some of them have committed suicide.

“This is not something we should be happy about. Our focus will be on exports of over 100% of GDP. That should be our aim not the 20, 30 or 50. In Singapore it is 250% of GDP and Hongkong - 300%. We don’t need to get there right away. Let’s have a target. Think about it. 100% of GDP. If you have a dream like that then we can look at exports in a completely different way, completely out of the box,” Dr. de Silva said.

- SJ