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| Sunday, 25 July 2004 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Research and Development need of the hour in industrial survival For any industry to survive in today's competitive world, Research and Development (R&D) is the need of the hour, Managing Director Samson Rajarata Tiles Ltd (Member of DSI Samson Group) Dr Bandula Perera stressed . He was delivering the keynote address at the Sri Lanka Ceramic Symposium and said that Sri Lanka has spent less than 1.3 per cent of the country's GDP on R & D in 2003, which was inadequate where other countries are concerned . He said that developing countries in the region including Singapore, Malaysia and Tailand are spending more than 2 per cent of their GDP for R&D. He said that now people go for value for money, therefore fierce competition that from China and India due to low cost imports have affected countries like Sri Lanka."The only alternative is to invest heavily in the R&D for the designing of value added products,or we would perish in no time in the international market", Dr Perera added. Although it appears that competition with China is almost impossible,one should not forget that Sri Lanka has key comparative advantages in the market, sea freight costs are less when importing from Sri Lanka, he said. Dr Perera commenting on the ceramic industry in the country said that during the past years ceramic exports have seen a sharp decline due to the un-competiveness in the market.He also said that our prices are even higher than UK market, the reason being the high energy cost, lack of the use of modern technology and labour issues Our energy prices are the highest in the region which account for more than than 40 per cent of the cost of production are in a looming problem. He said that LP gas would be the best option to electricity, therefore the government should encourage more Gas companies in the country in order to slove the energy problem to a greater extent . (HHS) |
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