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Wednesday, 23 April 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cathrine Weerakkody
Q: How long have you been in Sri Lanka?
A: I arrived in Sri Lanka on 8 April in 2011 and I am leaving at the end of this month. So my term will have been slightly more than three years.
Q: How strong are Sri Lanka’s bilateral ties with South Korea?
A: The overall ties are actually stronger than ever. Notably, it was evident in the summit diplomacy. President Rajapaksa made a State visit to Korea in 2012 after a lapse of 17 years. The following year Korean Prime Minister Hongwon Chung made an official visit to Sri Lanka for the first time since the inception of the bilateral diplomatic ties in 1977.
Even at Parliamentary level, there have been frequent exchanges of visits. On the other hand, people-to-people exchanges have also been rapidly increasing, largely owing to Korean Airline’s launch of direct flights between Seoul and Colombo in March 2013. It immediately led to a 20-30% increase in the arrival of Korean businessmen and tourists to Sri Lanka. An average load factor of 90% on that route shows the vibrancy of our overall relations.
"The amount of aid has been gradually increasing and now Korea provides roughly $ 80 million per year to Sri Lanka. We mostly focus on water supply and road-building in remote areas. Recently we started waste management projects. Those projects might not be highly visible but we are proud that they are essential to the welfare of the people at the grassroot level
The economic and political contexts are different between the two countries so it is not possible and also not recommendable for Sri Lanka to exactly follow Korea’s development path. Moreover, Korea has faced many problems like the shrinking of the middle class which threatens to tear down the social fabric. Anyway, the message I would like to give is that if Korea could make a success from scratch, Sri Lanka can do better. As the 26-year-long war ended, Sri Lanka is given an opportunity of a lifetime and I am confident that this island will soon develop into the commercial centre of the region
Sri Lanka is on the right track in many aspects, so I have more to compliment than to find fault with. But one thing I would like to mention is the excessive financial burden on the Government in many areas, including education and healthcare. If the Government can afford it, that will be a different issue. However, the Government is staggering under the weight of numerous subsidies. Well, I am aware it is not politically popular to change the welfare policies. But people should understand it is not sustainable. In the course of Korea’s economic development, the prevalent spirit of the country was, after all, self-help of the people"
Our cultural relationship is another area which bears good fruit. A number of Korean tele-dramas have been introduced and now Sri Lankan people can watch them almost every day on TV. Sujatha Diyani even became a social phenomenon and raised the public awareness on Korean culture to a great extent. In response to the growing public interests in Korean language and culture, the Korean Embassy requested and provided financial assistance in teaching Korean language as part of the regular curriculum at the local A/Level and opened the Korea Corner, a mini cultural centre, at the Colombo Public Library. Also, we are talking to the Ministry of Education about having Korea’s economic and political developments taught in high school history classes.
Commercially, we have many of Korea’s leading companies operating successfully in Sri Lanka, such as Hyundai, Samsung, and POSCO. They are engaged in a number of Government and private sector projects throughout the island. After all, it is the private sector that sustains overall relations. As you might remember, Korea was once the biggest investor in Sri Lanka in the 1990s and I now see a real possibility to regenerate the momentum.
Q: How many Sri Lankans work in South Korea?
A: The employment of Sri Lankans in Korea was first initiated by the then Minister of Labour President Rajapaksa, in the early 1990s. Since then, the areas of employment have been gradually expanding. As a result, Korea even opened opportunities in the fisheries sector in 2012 and is currently taking necessary steps to employ seamen as well.
Now there are about 25,000 Sri Lankans in Korea and the community is playing an active role in promoting the two countries’ relationship. In recent years, Sri Lanka has been allocated the largest or second largest job quota per capita-wise from Korea. It shows how much the people of the two countries like each other.
Q: How much of development aid does Sri Lanka receive from Korea annually?
A: The amount of aid has been gradually increasing and now Korea provides roughly $ 80 million per year to Sri Lanka. We mostly focus on water supply and road-building in remote areas. Recently we started waste management projects. Those projects might not be highly visible but we are proud that they are essential to the welfare of the people at the grassroot level.
Q: What can Sri Lanka learn from the Korean development experience?
A: Nowadays Korea is a well-known country for its high-technology products, fancy automobiles and K-pop dramas. But in the 1950s and ’60s, Korea was synonymous with poverty. A series of tragic events – losing sovereignty in 1910, the three-year-long civil war in the 1950s and the following separation of the country – completely devastated the country. As is well known, a shanty town in Borella was named after Korea. But from the 1960s onward, Korea began to change. First, people started adopting a new spirit of ‘yes, we can do it’. They worked round the clock seven days a week for a better life. Such determination and diligence became the basis of Korea’s economic miracle.
The Government also set the right direction for economic development, namely through the export first policy. In the beginning, we did not have much to export so we started with wigs. I have a vivid memory of how mothers and sisters in the village used to line up to sell their hair to wigmakers for a small sum of money. Even though the beginning seemed humble, we gradually climbed up the ladder, and moved from cheap labour-intensive manufactures into heavy and construction industries in the 1970s and ’80s.
At the same time, the Government deliberately promoted manpower exports. We started by sending mining workers to Germany in 1963. They were followed by construction workers to the Middle East. The foreign remittances at that time greatly contributed to the development of the domestic market and the skills learned overseas laid the foundation for the growth of Korea’s own industries. In the 21st century, Korea is the 13th largest economy in the world and the world’s eighth largest exporter. Korea also surpassed the $ 20,000 per capita income, $ 1 trillion trade volume and the 50 million population.
Of course, the economic and political contexts are different between the two countries so it is not possible and also not recommendable for Sri Lanka to exactly follow Korea’s development path. Moreover, Korea has faced many problems like the shrinking of the middle class which threatens to tear down the social fabric. Anyway, the message I would like to give is that if Korea could make a success from scratch, Sri Lanka can do better. As the 26-year-long war ended, Sri Lanka is given an opportunity of a lifetime and I am confident that this island will soon develop into the commercial centre of the region.
Q: Any general advice to Sri Lanka?
A: Sri Lanka is on the right track in many aspects, so I have more to compliment than to find fault with. But one thing I would like to mention is the excessive financial burden on the Government in many areas, including education and healthcare. If the Government can afford it, that will be a different issue. However, the Government is staggering under the weight of numerous subsidies. Well, I am aware it is not politically popular to change the welfare policies. But people should understand it is not sustainable. In the course of Korea’s economic development, the prevalent spirit of the country was, after all, self-help of the people.
Q: What can Sri Lanka learn from the Korean education and knowledge sectors?
A: Speaking of education, the two countries certainly have one thing in common – parents with a high zeal for their children’s education. Even when Korea was devastated by the war in the 1950s, Korean parents scraped together every penny to educate their children to ensure a better future for them. I found the same sort of passion in Sri Lankan parents.
However, there are differences in the education systems between the two countries. In response to the demand for higher education, the Korean Government has allocated a substantial portion of the national budget to the education sector – i.e. roughly $ 46 billion for education in 2013. Moreover, we encouraged and even provided incentives to the private sector so that they would invest in education early on to narrow the remaining gap between supply and demand. As a result, Korea boasts a university enrolment rate as high as 80% while private institutes constitute 86% of the total number of universities. I believe that similar measures need to be taken in Sri Lanka.
Statistics say that merely 15% of the students eligible for university entrance were admitted to state universities and there are only 15 national universities. So, it is necessary for the Government to put substantial investments to meet such high expectations. The net effect might be a drastic budget cut in other areas. But the public will eventually understand that human capital is the backbone of social and economic development and so accept education as a national policy priority.
Furthermore, I strongly recommend Sri Lanka to allow more room for the private sector to establish universities. I am well aware of the existing concerns of its side-effects, but as a well-established international trend, many country cases including Korea present more advantages than disadvantages from private investments in the education sector.
Q: Any personal experience or final parting thoughts about Sri Lanka?
A: I have enjoyed so much living and working in Sri Lanka. Even apart from work, I travelled a lot all over the country, met people from various backgrounds, and tried the whole variety of Sri Lankan culture and food. By doing so, I felt like I was becoming part of this society. It is very difficult to leave all this behind. I will miss everything about Sri Lanka, such as the train ride to Nuwara Eliya, the Sigiriya rock frescos, the Pettah market and others. But, above all, I will miss my friends here the most.
(The writer is a CIMA Passed Finalist and a Final Year Undergraduate Student in the UK.)
