{"id":102706,"date":"2020-05-22T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T22:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102706"},"modified":"2020-05-22T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T22:30:21","slug":"re-modeling-economic-policies-to-succeed-balanced-growth-in-the-country-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/22\/re-modeling-economic-policies-to-succeed-balanced-growth-in-the-country-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"RE-MODELING ECONOMIC POLICIES TO SUCCEED BALANCED GROWTH IN THE COUNTRY (PART 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Re-modeling\neconomic policies of the country may have been the prime accountability of all\ngovernments elected to the office since independence in 1948. Although the\npolicymakers soon after the independence, did not publicly state to accomplish\nthe accountability with balanced growth, the focus of policymaking implied to\nreduce the bias in the society that created a severe class-struggle and\ncontrasts in the country.  It was a\nchallenge to political leaders as well as economic policymakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\neconomic policy before 1956 was giving priority to boost domestic rice\nproduction that was not reflecting self-sufficient status, which was not adequate\nto change the economy giving advantages to the rural people. Although Sri Lanka\nhad the potential to produce the required volume of rice production in the\ncolonial period the economic policy was not fair, despite the potential\ncolonial masters\u2019 aim was to import rice and local politicians were unhappy\nabout such a policy. It reflected in the operation of the state council before\nindependence. Economic historians should identify the historical reasons to\nalign colonial policies to increase rice production by local politicians, and\nwhy they were in narrow thinking field when there was a broader field to think\nabout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npattern of economic growth and development echoed apparent bias between urban\nand rural Sri Lanka during the colonial and after the period. Economic\npolicymakers had no broader understanding of the philosophical aims of economic\ndevelopment and social focus of growth perspectives, but the rural community\nhad a feeling that they were brushed aside by the government in the\npolicymaking process. A shadow of Marxist politics walked around the country\nconcerning the policy negligence as a country which based on more than 75%\nagriculture shouldn\u2019t have opened the way for Marxist politics.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nweakness of economic policies in the various sectors of the economy appeared\nsince independence and recorded economic dualism, which was a product of\npolicymakers. Before the Western colonial masters, Sri Lanka\u2019s economy was not\ndualistic and monarchical rule managed balanced growth in the entire country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nit looked at the pattern of growth from time to time after independence it showed\nthat the government\u2019s preference was to invest more money in urban areas to\ngive economic advantages to rich people, and no government elected since independence\nhas been focusing to radically change the economy except the government elected\nin 1977.  Although economic or technical\ndualism was a popular topic of economic students and talked on removing dualism\nby a balanced growth approach that was ignored by economic policymakers the\nright medicine for the problem emerged during and after the colonial period.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngovernments elected from 1947 to 1956 attempted to hang in the colonial\neconomic policy concentrating to be engrossed with the colonial masters\u2019 views.\nThe political authority considered the policy focus had to maintain class\ndifferences while development thrust was going on, and the economy had adequate\nfood to provide the needs of a small population and the creation of\nproductivity was the disguised issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngovernment of Sr John Kotalawala attempted to modify the colonel economic\npolicy, considering the issues encountered during the Korean War, and expanding\nthe market economic system inserting domestically intended ideas and changes that\nwere conceded appropriate to Sri Lanka and attempted to stimulate the economy\nby a six-year development program. Although many have no clear understanding of\nthe policy framework of Sr John Kotelawala it had a very good practical\neconomic philosophy based on the market system. When I was reading the Six-Year\ndevelopment plan I had a feeling that it was an attempt to take market policies\nto regional Sri Lanka. The policy effort was unsuccessful as the government\nlost the election in 1956.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nelected government in 1956 endeavored to reverse the economic policy that has\nbeen working since the independence, with a giant hope on a system of the\ncentral planning type socialist economic system, and the policy focus directed\nto applying inward-looking strategies, which had been aimed to promote import\nsubstitutions and to increase domestic production.  It was a good idea but policymakers did not\naffiliate to prevent shortages in consumer goods.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTen Development Program was initiated by the government and the program was not\nactive, as there was a conflict of economic ideology and the practical policy\nof the government, which attempted to nationalizing private investment projects\nrather than introducing prudent regulations.  It was considered as the best option to\novercome the issues emerged from the market economic policy. However, the\neconomic policy of Mr.S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was too aligned to the nationalism,\nwhich was appeared to be a popular style in the developing world when the wind\nof independence was blowing around the colonial countries in Asia, Africa, and\nLatin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nthe economic policy initiated in 1978 seemed to be popular and logical in the\nglobal environment, policy efforts showed a failure without a policy control\nmechanism that consisted of a prudent regulatory framework.  The policy authority ignored the essential disciplines,\nthat needed to successfully implementing the market economic policies. The\ncontrol mechanism in the economic policy process has been wicked from 1978 to\n2019 as the political influences in the administration system corrupted policy\ndisciplines.  The attitudes of the public\ndemonstrated the willingness to maintain liberal policies, whether they were\nsuccessful or not achieving economic targets, but the open economic policies\nwere favorable to continue in the future. However, some people continuously\nblamed the market economic policies disregarding the benefits gained to the\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nparty politics in the country prevented the changes required to the market policies\nwith a prudent regulatory framework, and the elected governments showed a\nwillingness to maintaining the policy focus without regulation and discipline.  The major reason to continue the policy focus\ndespite the disciplines appeared that the satisfaction of the mentality of\nconsumers, and politically, the market environment has been in a favorable\nenvironment for the platform-talks of politicians.     The community\nenjoyed the window shopping, as the shops were full of imported goods under the\nliberal economic policies which permitted to import any rubbish without proper\nquality control. The best example of this situation was that certain popular\nbusinessmen in the country imported rubbish from the UK in 2019 despite the\nopportunity was given to businessmen for the development of export industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nliberal economic policies supported creating a new wealthy class and they\ncontributed a massive volume of money to political parties in power.  The liberal system further depreciated the\ngovernment\u2019s financial disciplines and supported to increase corruption. The\ngood governance promoted in platforms during the 2015 presidential election and\nthe politicians gained power engaged in heavy financial corruption such as\nCentral Bank\u2019s bond scam. The traditional wallow politics have been removed and\nreplaced by new capitalists who have been worse economic managers and investors.\nTraditional capitalists reluctant to engage in immoral business, but the choice\nof new capitalists seemed to pursue immoral business to destroy the young\ngeneration to make quick profits.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberal\neconomic policies showed a massive change in society at the cost of economic disciplines.\nThe major weakness of the system was neglecting a balanced growth between rural\nand urban areas and a heavy concentration on concrete jungles as the new class\nemerged after 1978 falsely believed that high rise building reflects the\ndevelopment and growth.  They disregarded\nthe environment and potential opportunities in the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nare the real criteria to determine the upliftment and quality of life of\npeople?  Many economists contributed\ncontradictory views the universally accepted view is the eradication of bias of\nliving conditions of people.  Developing\nnew economic policies Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka needs\nto concentrate this idea and re-modeling the developing environment with a\nbunch of anticipated achievements related to each criterion.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Re-modeling economic policies of the country may have been the prime accountability of all governments elected to the office since independence in 1948. Although the policymakers soon after the independence, did not publicly state to accomplish the accountability with balanced growth, the focus of policymaking implied to reduce the bias in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102706","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=102706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}