FDI linked to peace and political stability - NCCSL president

by Elmo Leonard

Foreign direct investment is directly linked to peace and political stability, president, National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) Ms Nirmali Samaratunga said last week. The conflict in the north and east of the island affects the business climate of the whole country. She also said that businesses must compete with other businesses outside a nation's borders, at the National Business Excellence awards 2006.

In response, British High Commissioner Dominick Chilcott said that if there is to be sincerity in ending the war, talks between the government and the LTTE must take place within the country of conflict. While talks went on in another country, the turmoil raged on, signifying no pertinence to peace.

Yet, the awards will spur entrepreneurs on, Chilcott said.

The British envoy, drew attention to the recent visit to Sri Lanka by Paul Murphy, former Secretary of State for North Ireland who was instrumental in bringing about the historic reconsolidation between the IRA and the British government.

That mediation was held on British soil and continued for two-and-a-half-years, attended by the same people on both sides, until results were achieved. No one was allowed to talk of conflict. The IRA militants were made to understand that by ending violence they stood to benefit, Chilcott said.

What worked in one country cannot be transferred to another; there must be a home-grown solution. Yet, both sides must acknowledge that no one can win the war; there has to be an effective ceasefire; the situation has to be normalised far away from Colombo; there must be an end to murders and abductions; no one must live in danger and fear, are among the requirements, Chilcott said.

In the 1970s there seemed to be no end to the IRA-British conflict, but all is over now. "Don't be trapped in the past," he said. With the end to the conflict, tourism in Northern Ireland was thriving, for people want to see, the land where the confrontation had gone on. Chilcott hoped that Sri Lanka will experience the same happy ending.

The awards, begun in 2004 have been designed to recognise those business organisations that make a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the country, Chilcott said. These awards are a way of saying thank you to those businesses for supporting the welfare of Sri Lankan society, which benefits all the people of this island. The British envoy, hoped they will also serve as an encouragement to other businesses to follow their example.

Samaratunga said that this year too, there was a commendable response from a wide cross section of business sectors including the SME sector.

Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara, chairman, panel of judges, said that the country had 65 good companies which pay good dividends to shareholders and hold high value stocks. Nanayakkara regretted that improvements in performance made by the 2006 winners over the performance of the 2005 winners, were marginal. "If this is the measure of the growth of the economy, it is bad," he said.

Business excellence in the outside world, particularly in the western economies is judged on the long-term performance of the firm, Prof Nanayakkara said. For a company to be considered excellent, so, others can safely benchmark against it, its long term patterns of dividend payouts, share prices, market share, ability to recruit talent and retain it, are considered measures. A common yardstick used is the average industry performance. To determine where a company is outstanding the longitudinal data of the company's performance are available along with industrial data. But, it was sad that in Sri Lanka such data are not available in the required and comparable form, to assist judgement of performance of anyone.

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