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| Sunday, 7 September 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Regaining Sri Lanka and Beyond 'Regaining Sri Lanka and Beyond' is the theme of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) business forum to be held from October 16 to 18 at The Colombo Plaza. The forum is being held to facilitate the private sector to meet the challenges spelt out in the 'Regaining Sri Lanka' policy document. The theme will be aimed at the Government's short to medium-term policy framework for achieving substantially higher economic growth based on the prospect of achieving peace in Sri Lanka. "But we want to go beyond that and called the forum 'Regaining Sri Lanka and Beyond," said Deva Rodrigo, Vice Chairman CCC. Over the past several years, the private sector has been urging governments to arrive at a consensus and a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict that has ravaged the country as they felt that this would provide the political stability for economic development. 'Regaining Sri Lanka' presents the Government's strategy to meet the economic challenges facing the country and to put the island on a path to reap the benefits of a vibrant economy. The policy document has ambitious targets for the country, which include achieving an annual growth rate of 10 per cent on a sustained basis and creating two million new jobs. "Much of the onus of delivering this falls on the private sector, which has been assigned the role of key economic agent for the economy," said Professor Lakshman Watawala, Chairman of CCC's Convention Sub-Committee. According to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's policy, the Government's responsibility is to ensure an environment where businesses can achieve the productivity gains necessary to compete effectively and to ensure that the public sector operates efficiently and is cost effective. Two keynote addresses will be made at the inauguration of the convention. The first will be delivered by Kishan Modi, President of Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Indian National Committee of the International Chamber and ex-Chairman of Federation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The other address will be delivered by Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman of Banyan Trees Group, Wah Chang Group and Singapore Management University and Director of Singapore Airlines Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank and Singapore Investment Corporation. The technical session will come under two broad areas - Strategies for achieving double digit economic growth and The role of the private sector in infrastructure development. Presentations will be made on key strategic initiatives and the modalities of achieving these goals will be discussed. Prof Watawala explained that there will be more interaction this way and that participants will learn more about Regaining Sri Lanka from the experts who were responsible for preparing the policy document and be exposed to business leaders' views on this. They will be able to learn from the experiences of other countries in applying policy changes in this country from prominent foreign speakers. The convention is aimed at chairmen and CEOs, directors, senior managers, executives, management trainees, senior government officials and academics. The CCC, which was formed in 1839, has over 164 years of experience and is organising the annual convention for the fourth year. The principal sponsor is Jetwing while John Keells Holdings is a sponsor. Co-sponsors include Carson Cumberbatch and Co Ltd, Chemical Industries, Ceylon Tobacco Company Ltd, Dialog GSM, Lankem Ceylon Ltd, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and United Motors. Affno is the official Internet Service Provider and SriLankan, the official airline. |
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