{"id":101597,"date":"2020-04-26T16:02:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T23:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101597"},"modified":"2020-04-26T16:02:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T23:02:14","slug":"killing-two-birds-with-one-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/26\/killing-two-birds-with-one-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing two birds with one stone."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

President Gotabhaya is interested in creating a new economic\ntrend-  establish new businesses and\nindustries\u201d(From: Rebuilding a policy driven economy: Daily FT:17\/4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me hark back to my days in the Administrative Service, some\nfive decades ago. Perhaps my experience as an Assistant Commissioner in the\nMarketing Department, aa a Deputy Director of Small Industries and my work as\nthe GA at Matara working on the DDC Programme could  offer some ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My subsequent achievement after eighteen years in the\nAdministrative Service lies  in the\ninternational field. This  includes the\nYouth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, which I commenced from scratch,\nwhen the ILO attempt to create a self employment programme at Tangail,\nBangladesh had gone bust. The Self Employment Programme I established, being\nimplemented by youth workers who were recasted by me to become more economists\nhas grown to become the premier \nemployment creation the world has known, having created three million\nyouth entrepreneurs by now. It will be of interest to note that this Youth Self\nEmployment Programme I established from scratch in 1982 in Bangladesh,  is now holding a prime place in the Five Year\nPlan of the Planning Commission. It is not only a major development programme\nof Bangladesh, but also the premier employment creation programme to be ever\nimplemented in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In rebuilding the lost economy may our leaders have the foresight\nto not only re establish the petty distribution systems that have been lost in\nthe past few months, but to take one step ahead, and leave something for\nposterity, making a major change in creating new employment, bringing incomes,\nobviating imports and making a permanent contribution to national development.\nThat is how I suggest to kill two birds with one stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me hark back to my days in the Administrative Service, some\nfive decades ago. Perhaps  some of what I\ndared to do could  offer some ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us consider making Paper as an industry. Sri Lanka does\nnot make any Paper today. We happen to be the only country in the entire world\nthat does not even make use of waste paper to make paper. A number of youths on\nmy Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh make a living for the past few\ndecades on making waste paper into  card\nboard. When we were addressing hundreds of youths on self employment training\nworkshops and providing them with lunch packets packed in  in cardboard boxes some youths carefully  collected the used cardboard to be used in\ntheir industry to 3make new cardboard. Go back to the days of the Divisional\nDevelopment Council Programme of the days of Prime Minister Sirimavo and\nthen  the Divisional Secretary at Kotmale\nestablished a Unit making Paper out of waste paper. Today the most evident\nindustry in Colombo is the collection of old paper and cardboard and shipping\nit to India some  70 tons a month and\nbuying back cardboard from India. Once we had the Valachenai Paper Factory.\nAround two years ago I went upto the gates and gazed at the Factory with its\nbroken down  and overgrown buildings\nbecause I had been there several times in the Sixties. I gazed at the ruins\nremembering the nights I spent at their plush Circuit Bungalow on my\ncircuits.  I have seen myself the straw\nbeing washed and being used to make paper. Valachenia made easily half our\nrequirements and all from straw.  Farmers\nin Hingurakgoda made good money and I had to linger  behind lorries laden with straw as those were\nthe non motorway days and overtaking any lorry was impossible. Later we\nestablished another Paper Factory at Embilipitiya. That is also closed now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Paper Making in Sri Lanka\nhas an interesting history. The original Valachenai Factory was meant to use\nthe illuk grass and that grass ran out and making paper stopped. Then it was\nour Valachenai scientists that did experiments and made paper out of straw. It\nis strange how Sri Lanka does not make any paper and straw is wasted and mostly\nburnt to get rid of.  However today in\nmany countries like India and China Paper is made out of straw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us get down a few small paper making machines  from India and  get them installed in the colonies. This can\nbe easily done within two months and straw from our present Maha harvest in\nJuly and August this year can be made into paper.  The cost of the few paper making machines,\ncost of air flowing them, installing the units and the full out lay can be\nrecouped within the sales of the paper that we make in the fist two years. I am\ncertain of this.(For further reference: Let\u2019s get back to the days when the colonists\nat Higurakgoda and Polonnaruwa  sold\nstraw and made money: www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/04\/26\/lets-get-back-to-the-days-when-the-colonists-at-polonnaruwa-sold-straw-and-made-money\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me suggest  another\nindustry which we once did very successfully. That is Food Preparations making\nJam, and Juice. When I was in charge of the Vegetable Purchasing Scheme at\nTripoli Market in 1957 there were days when I would send off two lorries to\nEmbilipitiya to purchase all the melon, red pumpkin and ask pumpkin the\nproducers had brought for sale and feed it to the Canning Factory. We made Red\nPumpkin into Golden Melon Jam, Ash Pumpkin into Silver Melon Jam. Chena\ncultivators all over the DryZone made good incomes selling to the Marketing\nDepartment. The MD always paid more than what the traders paid for produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately under President Jayawardena who caved into the\nInternational Monetary Fund and accepted their conditions and we had to abolish\nthis Canning Factory. Out went the Canning Factory privatized for a private\nentrepreneur to make money Earlier under the MD days the Canning Factory\nbrought high incomes to chena producers and Sri Lanka was self sufficient in\nall Jam and Juice. It was then that we exported pineapple pieces .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that, including building up an export trade in pineapple\npieces and pineapple juice  had been\nestablished in three years 1955 to 1957<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us  consider doing\nsomething phenomenal- a Perfume Factory. I saw on the television the\ninauguration of our President at the hallowed precincts of Ruwanweli seya. The\nflowers offered at Ruwanweliseya and Sri Maha Bodhi can be made into\nperfumes.  That will be a new industry.\nOnce when I went to Lucknow I was asked to buy some perfumes from Sugandhika.\nThere was a range of perfumes and I bought some. I then asked to be shown their\nperfume factory and was surprised when I was told that they did not have a\npermanent factory. They said that they had a few small scale portable plants\nwhich they took to the places where flowers were available. However I noted\nthat they made a vast range of perfumes and have built up a world wide trade..\nGetting back to the flowers we have being offered at Ruwanweliseya and Sri Maha\nBodhiya and Dalada Maligawa and places like Kelaniya we can easily get down to\nmake perfumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some one has to take the initiative and when I went to Lazareotte\nI saw a full science laboratory they have established to make products from\nAloe vira. We have to get a science lab to experiment on making perfumes and\nget a factory going.  It is not a new\nidea. It is a new idea to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It so happened that when I paid a visit  to Corrinth in Wales I saw a small distillery\nmaking all sorts of drinks. It was a small scale machine the type that will be\nrequired to make perfumes out of flowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a new industry. Get down a small distillery machine and\nget going and establish a laboratory to experiments on various scents and we\nhave a full scale perfume  industry. This\nis not fanciful thinking. If small scale some even portable perfume manufacturers\ncan have viable industries I am certain we can also make headway. Let me make a\nstatement that if I had known of small scale distillery machines like what I\nsaw at Corrinth, when I was GA at Matara I would have established a perfume\nmaking industry with the flowers offered at the Matara Bodhi. Perhaps this idea\nmay be taken up and a perfume industry established in Anuradhapura in  the near future. (For further reference: A\nPerfume Making Industry t Anuradhapura & Kandy, Lanka Web, 20\/11\/2019: www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/29\/a-perfume-making-industry-at-anuradhapura-and-kandy<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written at length on Making Paper, on a Canning Factory and\nmaking Perfumes and our economists whose approval will be sought would run down\nthese ideas as impractical as old fashioned and not worth talking about. But\nthose authorities may please note that I as an administrator have been\nsuccessfully doing this type of thing for a few decades. If anyone wants to\ndare my ideas let them first tell us what industry they have ever implemented\non their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me talk of the Crayon Factory that I established when I\nwas the G.A. at Matara in 1971..  Under\nthe Divisional Development Councils Programme as the G.A. I was entrusted with\nthe task of establishing employment creation programmes. I did establish a Boat\nMaking Industry that turned out 40 foot sea worthy fishing boats some 30 to 40\nboats a year. This was established at Matara and was a successful industry that\nprovided employment to around thirty youths. It worked successfully from 1971\nto 1978.when on the IMF advice it was run down and abolished by the Government\nof President Jayawardena. In its heydays from 1971 to 1977 it was a successful\nthriving and viable industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had suggested other viable industries but the Ministry of Plan\nImplementation wanted us to concentrate on smallscale  craft type of industries which actually\nduplicated the work done by the Small Industries Department. My suggestions of\nestablishing a Butter Creamery in Deniyaya and a Water Colour Industry was\nturned down.  The view of the Ministry\nwas that I should not venture into new fields. I was told to make tiles and\nbricks I disagreed because we were already making all the tiles and bricks we\nneeded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day I summoned my Planning Officer a chemistry graduate of the\nUniversity of Colombo and convinced him of trying to make a crayon.  I had worked for close upon a year as Deputy\nDirector of Small Industry and I was in charge of registering small\nindustrialits and allocating foreign exchange for them to buy raw materials and\nmachinery.   Crayons to my mind would be\nakin to making water colours and I had seen a water colour making factory and\nhad approved it. To my thinking making water colours was  similar but basic to making crayons.  We decided to have a go at it. We purchased\nsome essentials and commenced experiments at my residence. In a few days we\nrealized that we needed equipment and obtained the permission of the Rahula\nCollege Principal, Mr Ariyawansa to use the science lab at Rahula College. That\nwas the largest school lab in Matara. \nAfter school closed the school science lab was ours and we did a myriad\nof experiments for two long months every working day from six to mid night. It\nwas our Planning Officer aided by the science teachers at Rahula College\nthat  did experiments to make crayons. In\ntwo months of experiments what we made was never a perfect crayon. We had spent\ntwo months at least five days a week from six to mid night and never got a\nperfect crayon. Then our Planning Officer had a bright idea of consulting his\nprofessors in chemistry, the authorities that had taught him chemistry. I\nhappily authorized him subsistence and off he went. Four days later he emerged\na broken down man.  He had beseeched  advice from his professors and gone behind\nthem for three full days to be told that they had no time to get involved with\nhim and his fanciful ideas as they were busy lecturing and marking answer\nscripts. .  I and my team were not going\nto take this lying down. We recommenced experiments from six to mid night again\nat the school lab. Finally in another \nmonth we mastered the art of \nmaking  crayons. I sat with the\nPlanning Officer and we together fine tuned the crayon to be  equal to the Reeves, which was the best\ncrayon at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having successfully found out the method of making crayons it was\ndecided to make it a cooperative venture. My team decided that it should be a\ncooperative industry directed by us.   I\ndecided to entrust this task to Mr Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of\nParliament for Deniyaya in. his capacity as the President of the Morawak Korale  Cooperative Union. Sumanapala could be\ntrusted and he readily agreed. I authorized him to use cooperative funds to buy\na few small scale items that were required and we, myself and my team the\nPlanning Officer, Vetus Fernando, Development Assistant Daya Paliakkara, and a\nfew others moved to Morawaka. There we did train some twenty youths to make\ncrayons. It was a handmade crayon, as are most industries successfuly run in\nChina and  our task was to train the youths\nto ensure that each crayon was of good quality. In three weeks, working day and\nnight we filled two rooms with crayon boxes. I and Sumanapala took a few boxes\nof crayons to present them to Mr Subasinghe the Minister for Industries. He was\nsurprised at the quality and readily agreed to open sales.  A day was fixed to have the sales opening\nceremony and the industry came to be officially declared open. Within a month\nthe crayons were sold islandwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In establishing this programme no Ministry approval was sought and\nso we had to buy dyes, the only item that required  to be imported, at a   high price in the black market.  I tried to get the Ministry of industries  to give an allocation of foreign exchange for\nthe import of dyes, the type of allocation that I had a year ago given to the\nother industrialists when I worked as Deputy Director of Small Industries. We\nwere refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mentime the Controller of Imports was allocating foreign\nexchange to import crayons. I met Harry Guneratne the Import Controller and\nconvinced him hat by giving us a small allocation of foreign exchange to import\ndyes he could stop the import of crayons and make a big saving on foreign\nexchange. He wanted me to approach the Minister Mr Illangaratne and obtain his\napproval. Mr Illangaratne not only approved it but also insisted that a crayon\nfactory should be established at Kolonnawa, his electorate.  The Controller of Imports cancelled all\nimports of crayons because we undertook to make crayons for the entire island.\nIt was a massive saving on foreign exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crayon Factory was a glorious success from 1971 to 1977. This\nCrayon Factory became the show piece industry of the DDC Programme. In fact the\ncrayons were of good quality and the industry was well run, bringing great\ncredit to the DDC Programme that President Jayawardena had a special\ninvestigation done to discredit Sumanapala and this industry. A  Deputy Director of Cooperative    N.T.Ariyaratne was entrusted with this\ninvestigation. After a lengthy investigation and audit Mr Ariyaratne had\nreported that the industry was well run and all the books were in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Crayon Industry too was abolished by the Government of\nPresident Jayawardena on the instructions of the IMF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have provided details of establishing the Crayon Factory in the\nhope of inspiring any present Government Agent to make an attempt at\nestablishing an industry.  My blood boils\neven today, whenever I see any foreign crayon- now Crayola crayons being sold\nin Sri Lanka. I  am sad to think of what\nSri Lanka has lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suggested industries, making Paper, a Canning Factory and a\nPerfume Factory are all far easier to establish than the Crayon Factory I\nestablished in 1971 which was a glorious success. I can assure anyone of this\nfact.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hoped that the contents of this Paper will  convince our President a nd our Prime\nMinister that  new industries can be\neasily established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will be writing next week about the Youth Self Employment\nProgramme of Bangladesh, the premier employment creation programme the world\nhas known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne  Ph.D.\nMichigan State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former G.A. at Matara and Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the\nGovernment of Bangladesh 1981-1983<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development, Kindle\/Godages,\n2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternate Programmes of Success,\nGodages, 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26\/05\/2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara President Gotabhaya is interested in creating a new economic trend-  establish new businesses and industries\u201d(From: Rebuilding a policy driven economy: Daily FT:17\/4). Let me hark back to my days in the Administrative Service, some five decades ago. Perhaps my experience as an Assistant Commissioner in the Marketing Department, aa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}