ETCA ,FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT ,LOCAL INVESTORS TO DEVELOP JOB MARKET AND ONE MILLION JOBS FOR YOUTH……….Who are taking us for a ride ??
Posted on July 21st, 2016

Sarath Obeyskera

Only Industrial project started in Sri Lanka ( during Yahaplana Government which we all voted for)  ,by a local investor with funds from a debenture issue is the development of a Shipyard  in Mutwal .Fishery Minister is the only minister who has some insight about developing his own field is encouraging to expand such ventures in East ,South and North .He does not have to ask Prime Minister ,Finance minister ,Minister for  Strategic Development or even Southern Development Minister to develop fishery harbours and implement Private Public Partnerships .

We ae developing more yards and in Trinco and plan to move to Karainagar in the North.

Galle Shipyard  project to be commenced within the Galle Commercial harbour under SLPA ,is  at a a standstill because of  there are too many cooks trying to handle investments .None of the ministers mentioned above even have a clue about priorities ,how to encourage local investors and how to solve the one million jobs program .

We had one million houses program under Premadasa and people knew that program was being implemented and the President and Housing Minister knew what they were doing .We may not have built so many houses but it was implemented with much enthusiasm and publicity.Then we had 200 garment factory program an Premadasa knew what he was doing .Many jobs were created ,and we exported products.

Today many MP.s are waiting for Minister of foreign employment to travel to Korea ,Japan  or Cyprus  to bring more and more jobs so that they can send youngsters abroad in their own constituencies.

That day I went to Parliament to meet may be 7th minister to seek help to allow us to restart a project in Galle  Harbour .I was standing with a southern minister who wanted us to start the project trying to arrange the minister in charge of Ports to make a request to allow us to proceed .Minister of foreign employment was having a discussion with two ministers who were jokingly asking the Foreign Employment Minister to give them  at least 50 jobs to youth in his area to go abroad,

Then one sharp education minister said why do you ask jobs for youths to go abroad, when we have a project in Galle where they can be employed?

This is how the government is running with no encouragement to any local investor to develop investments and to provide employment.

All are waiting for ETCA to happen, and media going to town about who is going to negotiate ETCA .an making news about Mahendan playing a leading role .Not a single Media Institution is taking a leading role in highlighting problems faced by the investors  and how ETCA can affect local industrialists.

If they think that under ETCA Indians will give jobs to our youths, we are terribly mistaken .

Indians are quite good in starting small businesses and they are not scared do take risks .They will come here and start projects and we Sri Lankan investors will watch helplessly .

Only sector with local investments may be Real Estate Development and Indians will flood the country to work in construction Field .Companies like Dockyard may  get jobs with Japanese funding and they will bring at least 500 Indians  to build the ships .Sadly the money which comes from Japan will go to Japan as the Japanese major shareholder take back most of the money by charging commission for all Japanese supplied equipment and then take 51% of the profit .

Indian labour supply companies will take part of the left overs to India and what we will have is the salaries paid to some Sri Lankan workers in the yard.

ETCA will come and current workforce of 300 hundred Indians (you will not see them in the town as they are all inside the harbour who cannot go out) may swell to 1000 .

Many MP’s are eagerly waiting for  ETCA to happen  ,for Indian companies to come to Sri Lanka on preferential treatment and we Sri Lankan Investors are pushed from pillar to post  by the ministers who have no clue about developing our industry .

I will not be surprised if BOI ,opens up a special Indian Desk and we poor local Industrialists  will stand and watch helplessly ? ( I brought my issue up with BOI as it is a BOI venture and they have no clue on  how to help me !)

I have decided not to go after any minister or BOI for help other than the Minister of Fisheries who has already done much more than any other ministers so far and develop  his own Industry and provide employment.

This is the only Industry which does not export labour ( but Tuna!)  and there is massive potential for generating one million jobs and make the life of poor fishermen worth living  and our nation healthier by eating more and more fish !

Sadly none of the ministers taking big about foreign investments have a clue on how to generate employment for Sri Lankans.

 

Sarath Obeyskera

3 Responses to “ETCA ,FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT ,LOCAL INVESTORS TO DEVELOP JOB MARKET AND ONE MILLION JOBS FOR YOUTH……….Who are taking us for a ride ??”

  1. plumblossom Says:

    Even if the constitution will be changed since this idiotic government follows whatever instructions the US, UK, EU, Norway, Canada, Sweden, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists tell it to do, we must ensure that the unitary status of the country is not compromised in any way whatsoever. The clause in the 13th amendment which says that ‘the North and the East is the homeland of the Tamil speaking people’ must be deleted since it is totally false when looking at the history of the island. This clause must be replaced with the clause ‘the entire island is the homeland of all its peoples’. The provision which allows for the merger between two provinces should be deleted. As much subjects from the concurrent list should be included in the national list. Under no circumstances should land, police or fiscal powers be given to provincial councils. All of us need to ensure that the above happens since if the system reverts back to a parliamentary system and the presidential system is scrapped, the only way to ensure the unitary status of the country is the make sure that the provincial councils do not get any more powers than they have at present. The Public Security Ordinance should not be amended in anyway as well. If any provincial councils acts out of line, the head of government should dissolved such a provincial council and direct rule by the head of government should be enforced under those circumstances.

  2. plumblossom Says:

    India has over 400 million poor people and over 40 million people in India are unemployed. If this ETCA is signed and the Hanuman bridge is built all these desperate people in India will come in droves to Sri Lanka since the socio-economic situation of Sri Lanka is a million times better than the socio economic situation of India. I would urge the uncaring and cruel Indian government to provide basic housing, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, food and clothing to these desperately poor 400 million Indians rather than spending US 5.2 billion dollars in building a Hanuman bridge to Sri Lanka. If Sri Lanka signs this ETCA with India it will be Sri Lanka’s end. Sri Lanka should not sign any such trade deals where people can come here to work freely, unless the country we are signing the ETCA with has a similar or a better socio-economic situation than Sri Lanka. I would urge the uncaring, corrupt and cruel India Government to immediately stop building space stations and nuclear weapons and use that money to provide basic housing, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, food and clothing to the 400 million desperately poor people of India which is a government’s basic responsibility. Sri Lanka should stop immediately the signing of ETCA with India and urge the Indian Government to carry out the above task rather than serving the rich people of India only which the uncaring and cruel Indian Government seems to be doing.

  3. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Traitor chief pol pot ponil wickramaSinhalakiller making fun of jaathi dhrohee Sinhala modayas. He knows
    he is a tom pachaya and these idiots going to believe everything he utters from his backside. So he doesn’t
    give a damn. He can’t remember what he promised the day after. Luckily for him Sinhala modayas famous
    for being short-memoried. What more traitor chief can ask for?

    Unfortunately for the partiotic Sinhalese, traitor
    chief is in perfect health. There is no sign the traitor even getting a headache. So natural demise of the traitor
    is a long way away. Soon he will create 3 countries from 1 country. What a brain the traitor tamils, mussies
    and catholics will say. Sinhala modayas? They will only know after the creation of 3 countries! Poor Mother
    Lanka? She will have to suffer in the hands of these YAMA PALLAN FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME!

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