Eran outlines three pillars to make SOEs profitable

From left: IPS Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama,  SBSL Former Deputy Governer W.A Wijewardena, Deputy Minister of State Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne, M.I.M Rafeek, IPS Deputy Director Dushni Weerakoon

IPS Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama handing over a copy of the book to Chief Guest Deputy Minister of State Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne

By Waruni Paranagamage

State Enterprises Development Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne yesterday outlined on three key pillars — best management, innovative structures and investments to convert state owned enterprises (SOEs) into profit making organisations.

Noting that many Government enterprises had been thrown together into new this new Ministry he asserted the goal of his Ministry was to produce organisations that provides quality products at a competitive rate focusing mainly on the consumers.

He made these remarks delivering the keynote address at the launch of the 23rd annual publication ‘Sri Lanka State of the Economy 2015’ by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) yesterday.

He said the State Enterprises Development Ministry consists of a range of institutions such as financial, plantation, agriculture and aviation.  

“The Ministry has been given a challenge to reduce the burden on the treasury and the burden on tax payer. The key reason why these institutions were put together was to see its performance, management and thereby reduce the political interference leaving more space for improvement for the managers to focus on the economic and financial goals,” he explained. Highlighting on the challenges the new Ministry face he went on to said: “The immediate problem we face at present is the Issue of ownership and the issue of management. In order to address these issues in a more pragmatic approach, we must have more flexible policies to support it,” he added.

The Minister went on to say that productivity was one of the biggest issues faced by many SOE’s at present.

“Personally, with my corporate experience, I strongly believe that the secret to any enterprise success is ultimately its labour capital and technology,” he noted

Wickramaratne further emphasised that the innovative structures and investments were needed to overcome the issues in the State owned enterprises.

“We have to look at innovative structures and investments to address these problems that are stuck in the SOEs for many years. We have under-invested in the public sector. Hence, we need to get the best brains from the Universities in the country and learn lessons from the private sector,” he added. 

Pix by Shehan Gunasekara