Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:00
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ENCOURAGING businessmen to share their wealth may not be an oft-done act to spur development, but that was the path chosen by President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his keynote address to the all-important Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF), which kicked off here on Tuesday.
The CBF is critical for several reasons. Firstly, it is the first major summit taking place as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Secondly the Government has set a target of attracting US$ 2 billion in investment for specific field-related projects that include as diverse as agriculture, manufacturing, naval, aviation, tourism and higher education. Moreover, the CBF, which was held in Asia for the first time, also had the largest number of non-Commonwealth participants. In total there were representatives from 95 countries, including massive delegations from the UK and China.
The 1,500 odd delegates who attended were given a somewhat unique message by Rajapaksa. Instead of quoting growth numbers, Foreign Direct Investment statistics, special tax concessions generously handed to investors and other hooking tactics, he preferred to focus on equitable development.
Rajapaksa pointed out that the Commonwealth still has to reluctantly admit that the world has not yet been able to find durable solutions to the vexed problem of poverty as highlighted in the past CHOGM Declarations. If at all, the situation seems to have become even more challenging, in the light of the tremendous stresses that the world economy is experiencing.
As many experts have regularly pointed out, certain short-sighted policies and acute misjudgements during the recent past have resulted in a gloomy, global economic outlook, leading to the social frameworks of individual countries, being severely stressed and threatened, he noted. Fortunately, however, the growing levels of prosperity in Asia and several other emerging nations have served as a reasonably useful anchor for the sustenance of global economic growth, and it has been possible for the world to strike a rather helpful balance, over the past few years.
Predictably Rajapaksa trotted out post-war development and the need for it to continue for Sri Lanka to achieve sustainable peace through inclusive growth. Cooperation between the five G20 members of the commonwealth and the 32 small states of the same organisation were also highlighted by him.
He insisted that for genuine and credible partnerships to be established for wealth creation, the more advanced nations need to be sensitive to the issues of the lesser-developed nations, and must be honestly supportive of promoting trade with emerging nations. This is a remarkably honest evaluation of global economics and an appeal that is sincere if not entirely sugar-coated in the ways most delegates are probably used to hearing.
Development of human capital was focused on and the ‘brand’ of Sri Lanka was avidly promoted through the robust hub strategy, where the maritime, aviation, knowledge, commercial and energy sectors, together with tourism, are designed to propel Sri Lanka towards a ‘middle-income nation’ by 2016. The booming sectors and the Government’s vision were clearly outlined and presented before the large number of delegates. It is now up to stakeholders to make the most of the response from the CBF.
