{"id":120133,"date":"2021-11-09T18:42:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T01:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120133"},"modified":"2021-11-09T18:42:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T01:42:59","slug":"building-an-export-economy-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/09\/building-an-export-economy-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"BUILDING AN EXPORT ECONOMY IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Building\na strong export economy is a positive strategy and a gigantic challenge to\nrevive the prosperous status of the economy. First, policymakers need to\nunderstand that an export economy comprises a broader spectrum that focuses on the\nexport of goods and services and the effort needs to stress on many areas that\nare ignored in the current structure. If anyone read The Airport Economist, by\nTim Harcourt. (2008)\u201d it would be helpful to understand what areas should be\nconcentrated for building an export economy. Market investigation and\nidentifying areas that Sri Lanka could achieve is the key to building a strong\nexport economy. While it is considered an export economy, one needs to\nunderstand the limits to development and growth. But the environment in Sri\nLanka is showing no actions, only taking (NATO). Although policymakers want to\nbuild a strong export economy, if the country is not ready to do it, it\nwouldn\u2019t be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis a general assurance that Sri Lanka had a prosperous economy during the reign\nof kings and queens. It is quite difficult to estimate the rate of contribution\nfrom the export sector in the past. It can assume that agricultural products\nwere exported, and some have the opinion that shipbuilding and export were in\nhistory. There is no concrete evidence for this assent. It is observed that\npeople in Sri Lanka excessively talk about the prosperity had in history than\ncontributing to the economy at present. Despite the rhetoric, policymakers of\nthe country don\u2019t consider many ways that could apply to revive the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\npresident, Mr. Rajapaksa stated recently the Covid pandemic has heavily\naffected Sri Lanka and the policymaking, policy implementation, policy\nmonitoring, and remedial management have been weakened and the risk of a\npandemic is subject to talking points in all areas of the economy whilst\nfocusing on making a strong export economy has not been practical and the\nopposition politicians have motivated to create instability in the country\ndisregarding the reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nworking on building an export economy, it shouldn\u2019t ignore that an export\neconomy is subject to external shocks, and the economic diversification to\npositively face shocks would be a far-reaching aspect for constraint. Countries\nlike Sri Lanka with very few natural resources that support making an export\neconomy would be a giant task. Many talks about Singapore\u2019s achievements and\nthey ignore that international politics contributed to the success of\nSingapore\u2019s strategies and Sri Lanka has no such an environment to build a\nstrong international service environment. Although the Hambantota port\ndevelopment project focused on building a unique style of an international\nservice centre, it has not been developed as fast as expected by the\ngovernment. It might take time and the international competition and politics\nmay concern with the government expectations.                                                                                                  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka has a politics of blaming and demanding from the government rather than\ncontributing to production in the country. Economic advisors of ILO in the late\n1960s advised that the significance of the expansion of non-traditional exports\nwith traditional exports, tea, rubber, and coconut, and currently people in the\nworld, are concerned about organic agricultural productions and electronic\nservices. There are many export items based on agriculture and they would\nsupport foreign exchange-earning and increase foreign reserves of the country.\nPolicymakers concentrated on tourism and foreign employment and limited areas\nwhen there are many opportunities for non-traditional exports. Foreign\nemployment has a positive effect and many negative results, especially\nadministrative, social and other problems created by employing local people in\noverseas countries. The experience in Sri Lanka shows that very few areas. have\nbeen brought into being and the over-emphasis in very limited areas needs\nbroadly considering in the trust of developing a strong export economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign\nemployment has severe competition from other countries and the critical\nnegative aspect of foreign employment is transferring exchange earned from\nforeign employment to purchase houses overseas and the deaths of COVID-19 have\ncreated competition from developed countries to attract overseas employees. The\ngovernment of Sri Lanka has no either option or policy to change this\nsituation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnet result of building an export economy shows that earnings from exports have\nbeen misused for importing vehicles and other unnecessary items. For example,\nthe government has permitted to use of earnings from non-traditional exports to\nuse for people who make money from illegal businesses such as illicit liquor\nand drug dealing, and many others. Corruption in the country absorbs lots of\nexport earnings and many politicians protect such business based on undisclosed\nadvantages. Therefore, building an export economy has become a compact task,\nand the policy scrutiny is unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without\nbuilding an export economy, Sri Lanka will have constraints to stabilize the\nforeign and domestic values of the monetary unit and foreign reserves. The\ncurrent economic environment is a strong challenge for policymakers. Politics\nin Sri Lanka is a short-term matter because over 80% population expects\neconomic benefits from the government while building an export economy is a\nlong-term process.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexport of organic agricultural produce could be contributed to Sri Lanka\u2019s\neconomy like tea and coconut. Few policymakers understand this strategy and\norganic agricultural produce and use of them for industrial products such as\nmaking various juices would have worldwide demand. Many fruits, such as\npineapple, mango, orange, and other tropical fruits, could produce using\norganic manure and Ayurvedic medicines for insect controls. Such fruit juices\nwill have a demand for more than coke. They can export to developed countries\nand consumers enjoy organic fruit and fruit juices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organic\nagricultural produce and related industrial could attract higher prices and\nattract high demand and prices in developed countries. This strategy helps gain\nthe 50% contribution to GDP and more foreign exchange to the country. Organic\nfarming attracts tourists and needs developing model farms for demonstration and\nattracting overseas buyers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within\nten years, a very strong export economy and the market could be disentangled\nand the result would be a higher foreign value for the monetary unit and less\ninflation. A lower rate of interest in the economy could be maintained for\nborrowing organic producers and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nindirect advantages of the new export market based on organic products and\nservices would be the possibility of reducing import costs by medicines,\nchemicals for agriculture, and many others. The most arduous task would\nconvince Sri Lanka has organic agricultural products                                                                                                                   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Building a strong export economy is a positive strategy and a gigantic challenge to revive the prosperous status of the economy. First, policymakers need to understand that an export economy comprises a broader spectrum that focuses on the export of goods and services and the effort needs to stress on many areas […]<\/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-120133","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\/120133","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=120133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}