{"id":107072,"date":"2020-09-28T15:45:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T22:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107072"},"modified":"2020-09-28T15:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T22:45:20","slug":"small-is-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/28\/small-is-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Small is Beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

According to Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of\nthe University of Oxford, nine out of ten megaprojects in the world end up in\nfailure. The biggest drawback in megaprojects is their cost overruns. In the US\nalone, about 65% of the megaprojects have failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka, since Independence successive governments have\nadopted a \u2018bigger is better\u2019 policy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our governments have believed that it is through megaprojects\nthat the country could be developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka, the main reasons for the\ndrawbacks in megaprojects have been waste, mismanagement and massive scale corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of our megaprojects are Galoya River\nValleys scheme, Kanthale Sugar, Laxapana Hydro Power Complex, accelerated\nMahaveli program, Expressway motorways, Hambanthotha Port, Mattala airport and\nthe Port City project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though some have been successful some have\nbeen failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article stresses that \u2018Small is\nBeautiful\u2019 should be the slogan to develop our country.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small appropriate technologies and\npolities should be used to empower the people, not the \u2018bigger is better\u2019\nconcept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Port City Project\nseems to be causing enormous environmental destruction. The landlords who own\ncoastal lands from Preethipura to Pitipana (Negambo) have suffered tremendously\nduring this year\u2019s monsoon rains (July, August, and September). They\nremonstrate that the coastal erosion this year has been two or three times bigger\nthan any previous year; and this has been due to the Port City project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Port City\nproject has extensively dredged the ocean very close to these specific coastal\nareas. They had used large floating vessels for this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast amount of\nthe excavated sea sand had been disposed of at the Port City for landfill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their acts have\naffected water turbidity and rise\nin the sea water table. The villagers say that this year they experienced\nextensive sea flooding and as a result had extensive land losses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say this year it is a story of \u2018sea eating the land at\nhome\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They fear that the situation will be worse next year, and\nyears to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some villagers say they suspect that the company inside their\nvessels bagged the excavated sand for commercial purposes. The writer is\nunaware of the authenticity of this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the bad side effects of megaprojects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megaprojects can cause untold harm to the environment. In\nSri Lanka this has been a recurring thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than too much concentrating on megaprojects the\ngovernments should consider on small businesses. The governments should\npublicly acknowledge that small business is the main source of the country\u2019s economic\ngrowth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small business dominates Singapore\u2019s economy with over 95%\nof its businesses are considered small to medium scale enterprises.  These small businesses contribute over 50% of\nthe national GDP. The story is similar in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore has no foreign debt and has high government\nrevenue. The country consistently produce an economic surplus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Singaporeans Sri Lankans are also entrepreneurial,\nhardworking and determined. What they require is a small incentive from the\ngovernment to start their small business. Then, they will continue with it and flourish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To develop the country, the government must pay more\nemphasis on helping small businesses. This should be the government\u2019s number 1\npriority, not megaprojects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is small businesses that should create jobs and not\nthe public service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving incentive for small business can stop people from\nleaving the country looking for greener pastures. Many people are returning to\nSri Lanka owing to the Covid 19 virus. These people must be encouraged to stay.\nIt is the duty of the government to create opportunities for them to remain in\nthe country; they could live around their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, it is very difficult for a person to obtain a\npersonal loan, even a small amount from a bank. This especially applies to poor\npeople who are required to provide valuable security and\/or various guarantees.\nThe current government is making strident efforts to resolve this anomaly.  This is part of the government\u2019s Sawbaghyaye\nDakma program; this should be commended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is important is for the governments to intervene and\nstart initiatives to provide people with microloans so that they can start\ntheir own businesses. The previous government\u2019s \u2018Enterprise Lanka\u2019 scheme was\ngood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka even with a startup capital of Rs 100,000, a\nperson can make a big difference in their business life. Many people want to\nbecome their \u2018own boss\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microcredit is the best way of empowering women who are\ncapable of uplifting entire communities. Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh\nreports that the repayment success rates by women are between 95% and 98%.\nGrameen loans have been provided to people from buying a cell-phone to\nestablishing a profit making venture – fishery, livestock, carpentry, masonry,\ntailoring, food preparation, cleaning, grocery store, typing services, IT\nrelated work and running passenger transport operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The microloans need to be low, fixed rate interest loans,\nwith no fees and charges attached. As stated before, these loans should be\navailable to people who want to start\/expand their own small businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage According to Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of the University of Oxford, nine out of ten megaprojects in the world end up in failure. The biggest drawback in megaprojects is their cost overruns. In the US alone, about 65% of the megaprojects have failed. In Sri Lanka, since Independence successive governments have adopted a \u2018bigger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107072","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=107072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}