{"id":87259,"date":"2019-04-16T15:34:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T22:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87259"},"modified":"2019-04-16T15:34:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T22:34:21","slug":"lessons-for-ailing-great-britain-from-bangladesh-and-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/16\/lessons-for-ailing-great-britain-from-bangladesh-and-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons for ailing Great Britain from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Message for Sri Lankan\nreaders<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka with other\nThird World countries has achieved a status of high indebtedness due to\nfollowing the neoliberal policies embedded in the Structural Adjustment\nProgramme of the IMF. . In that process its assets and riches are being sucked\ndry by multinationals, International banks \nand Developed Countries. Earlier, the countries had established a\ndevelopment infrastructure to bring about production which has been abolished\nor made defunct by the machinations of the IMF. However details of that\ndevelopment infrastructure can be of use to develop ailing Great Britain. As\nfar as readers in Sri Lanka are concerned this paper discloses the great value\nof that development infrastructure and the role that it can play again  in rejuvenating the development  of our Motherland, if that were to ever\nhappen.<\/p>\n\n\n

Lessons for ailing Great Britain from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n

by Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Gone are the days when Great Britain ruled the waves. Then it was\ntruly an Empire where the sun never set. Money in gold and pounds sterling\nflowed from India-  when the East India\nCompany defeated Shiraj Ud Daulah, the ruler of Bengal. the riches that poured\nto Great Britain were enormous- Pounds 2.7 million to Great Britain and 1.2\nmillion distributed among the officials.. Between 1757 and 1815, 100 million\npounds went from India to Great Britain. This was growth for Britain but\ndestitution for India\u201d(From: Karunaratne: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World\nDevelopment) The colonies were made to grow coffee,  rubber, tea and other products that were\nrequired for the industries in Great Britain and the goods so manufactured were\nsold back to the people in the colonies. Britain gained from the trade of tea\nand coffee. That was the principle on which the colonies were run- to keep the\ncolonies clamped  in poverty with the\nriches accumulated in Great Britain. With the capital so created Great\nBritain  was able to build up a Social\nSecurity System and a first class National Health Service for its people.  The skyscrapers in London and cities like\nLiverpool were all built on the capital received from the colonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Great Britain had great politicians- that could rule the\nwaves and also great administrators. \nWhen the people in Sri Lanka rebelled in 1818  a scorched earth policy was put in force-\ndestroy everything, cut off every tree in bearing and shoot to kill every\nman.  In my living memory- my holidays\nwere spent on Estates owned by British imperial planters. My uncle was a Head\nConductor- that was the highest rank a local could aspire to and I have seen\nthe Superintendents at work. They worked with an iron fist- their word was law.\nBack in the UK too there were great rulers. It is on legend how Sir Winston\nChurchill acted to win the World War II. Once Great Britain did not have iron\nto make weapons. Out went the order, remove all iron gates, iron fences in\nLondon. That was done overnight. By the time the owners got up the iron was in\nthe smelting pot being turned into weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sad to say, those days of action are gone. I have been a student\nat universities in Edinburgh and Manchester and have worked in London, in\nManchester and Edinburgh . Today Great Britain is today full of professionals\nwho can talk,  argue,  present facts in a most articulate manner but\nto get down to action it is NATO- no action talk only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cities, once the doyen of the World, are now riddled with\ncrime. Cressida Dick, The London Police Chief stated that there are “190\ngangs fuelling the violent crime wave,\u201d with 123 murders in 2017. As reported\nin The Telegraph of 20\/10\/2017, you are six times likely to be burgled\nin the British Capital than in New York\u201d- both have a population of 8 million.\nMany are the No Go areas within Cities. This has been caused by the economic\ndownturn- unemployment and also due to cuts in funding for the Police. Half the\nPolice Stations are closed down and the police cadres  reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the British people voted to leave the EU because they have\nhad enough of playing second fiddle to Germany and France and found that the EU\nsystem was only leading the country no where, the US President Trump advised\nBritain to go it alone- not to go on bended knees to the EU. Instead the Prime\nMinister Theresa May went for the last two years on bended knees to the Leaders\nof the EU and got no where. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wither bound Great Britain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own life as an automobile owner – all my earlier cars were\nmade in Great Britain- a Hillman Minx,  a\nHumber Hawk, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Morris Oxford. The Prime Minister of Sri\nLanka in the Sixties, Mr Dudley Senanayake used a Humber Hawk. His Humber Hawk\nwas  brand new. On official visits I as\nthe  Commissioner of a District followed\nhis new Humber Hawk in my ten year old Humber Hawk. That Humber Hawk was a\ndependable, comfortable great car, comparable to any BMW  today. Yet Britain lost its grip on manufacture.\nNow Britain does not make a single car. The Land Rover and a few other makes\nare all owned by foreigners. British workmanship has eroded to nothing. Britain\nhas become a nation of talkers. As a Social Worker in Manchester, a Senior\nCommunity Worker in Edinburgh and as a Lecturer at Westminster we did well in\nproviding services, but the economy has grounded to a halt. Today building\nhomes and apartments is talked of as development. There is little talk of\nmanufactures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1980, in Edinburgh,   I was \nthe Senior Community Education Worker \nin Wester Hailes, Edinburgh and \nthe Warden of Clovenstone Community Center. We then had a repertoire of\nyouth and community development programmes. It is a crime ridden no go area\ntoday whereas when I was there I could travel all over even at midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, I was also supervising a dozen  lads under the Youth Opportunity\nProgramme(YOP) and the Special Temporary Employment {Programme(STEP) of the\nManpower Services Commission, the one and only occasion when Britain tried to\ngrapple with unemployment. The lads were to be acclimatized into community\nwork. They acquitted themselves very well, were very useful and I was struck\nwith their ability. They were all school leavers who failed to  enter the portals of higher studies. They\nwere paid a stipend for two years and thereafter got lost.  The only job they found was to join the army\nand I later found that some lads had become cannon fodder in foreign countries-\nsent on gory  missions to boast the glory\nof Great Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  greatest programmes of\nthe Manpower Services Commission- the YOP and STEP actually took away two of\nthe most formative years of the life of a youth, leaving them nothing other\nthan  to hog the queues of the Social\nSecurity System that gave them a meager living grant. I suggested that instead\nthese youths should be guided to follow a special intensive course in a\nvocation of their choice- where they would be able to work towards making\nsomething that was imported. Many are the Colleges of Education  in Edinburgh that excel in providing  vocational and technical education which\ntrain youths for  a year and award them a\ncertificate with pomp and pageantry. Left on their own to find a job in a free\nmarket economy with imports being the order of the day, they inevitably fail\nand have to submit to social security grants and end scraping the barrel for\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My suggestion- and\nI  wrote two reports  detailing how the youths under the Manpower\nService Programmes, instead of being introduced to all and sundry, should\ninstead follow a few tailor made intensive but a short six months\u2019 courses run\nby Colleges of Education in an area of their choice where they would after a\ngrounding in basic skills and use of machinery identify  saleable items that can be made,  and make such items as a part of their\ncourse. Then the Marketing Lecturers, the professional in economics of the\nColleges of Education who normally held courses in marketing on a simulated\nbasis  with  paper and pen, chalk  and talk will take charge and get involved in\nactually  marketing the product made by\nthe youths offering the chance to enable the youth to build up their abilities\nin the art of marketing. The Vocational Training Units in the Colleges of\nEducation would continue to guide the entrepreneurs till they are a success. My\nReport was submitted to the Director of Community Education,  the late Peter Williamson, who full of\nenthusiasm submitted it for approval by the Education Committee of the Lothian\nRegional Council. It was intensely debated, but the Labour Party stalwarts\nwanted to put off its implementation till Labour ruled the country. That was\nthe time when the Conservatives ruled for long.. I was given a commendation and\nthat was all. This happened in 1981. \nLabour was not elected for  a\nlength of time. When Labour was in power again, close to a decade later,  and I was available in the UK I approached\nsome Labour Councillors, The ones that were supportive of my ideas had left and\nthose in charge were indifferent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I was wasting my time doing nothing worthwhile and quit\nto Bangladesh in two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later,  back from\nBangladesh, I was a Lecturer at Westminster Adult Education Institute in\nLondon- my job was in community education- to assess the needs of the\ncommunity, draw up courses of study find suitable lecturers and implement them.\nThe Institute had an array of vocational courses – in painting, ceramics, wood\nwork etc and the trainees were trained and for practice purposes they made many\na something that were never saleable. I prepared a Report where I urged that\nthe trainees should be be more intensively trained and taught  to make a saleable product . Then the  econ lecturers of the Institute will guide\nthem in the rigours of marketing and ultimately guide the student to become an\nentrepreneur.  My ideas were booted\nout  and that idea died a natural death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great Britain has in\nthe meantime continued its way down hill.  \nIt is no longer a manufacturing hub. Germany and France have taken over\nthat role. Its main role is to educate others though its famous universities.\nThese universities are more run with money flowing from foreign lands, mainly\nThird World countries which have been forced by the IMF to liberalize the use\nof foreign exchange and get into debt in the process of providing funds for\neducating children in foreign universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This liberalization of\nthe use of foreign exchange and taking loans to pay the loans  was the method by which the Third World\ncountries  were  brought into control as “colonies”\nonce again. This story of how the sovereign countries were once again\ncolonized\u201d is detailed in my book: How the IMF Sabotaged the Development of\nthe Third World.(Kindle\/Godages)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now  the Superpowers are\nfast losing ground.  . .Britain cannot\ncope with the hordes of EU immigrants from backward EU countries in search of\ngold-like the story of Dick Whittington. So are also immigrants from African\nand Asian countries that somehow struggle, come in boats and brave the seas to\nsettle down. The administrative might of Britain is reflected in the fact that\nalmost a million immigrants who were once documented cannot now be traced.\nSadly immigration is out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little do the Superpowers realize that this mountain of\nimmigration as much as two million to Germany, over a million to Great Britain\nand millions to other European countries and yet continuing was  really the result of the EU, stalwart\ncountries, Great Britain and the USA(the Super Powers) imposing  the IMF\u2019s Structural Adjustment Programme on\nthe Third World countries, liberalizing the use of foreign exchange, imposing\nthe Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF on those countries which  crippled the development causing  abject poverty with a mass of people who\ncannot find any means of income\/employment. It is they that will go to any\nextent to get to the rich Developed Countries- they are all economic migrants.  This migration will never end.. (See my book:\nHow the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternate Programmes of Success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  citizens of Great Britain decided to get away\nfrom  being a member of the European\nUnion. Having joined later, Britain had to play a second fiddle  to both France and Germany.,  The people had got sick of Britain as a\nmember of the EU because immigrants from the poor countries of Europe have\nswarmed in droves, enjoying the social security system  the health services, with Britain failing to\ncope.     Great Britain   voted to leave. Instead of acting on it in a\nstraight forward manner, calling it a day and going it alone as advised by  President Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May\nwent licking the boots of EU leaders to get privileges for Great Britain.. She\ncame   back empty handed, ridiculed and\nignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a way out. Can Great Britain become great again and it is\nfor this cause  that Lessons from\nBangladesh and Sri Lanka become valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the IMF purposely made the Third World indebted, these\nsovereign countries  were in good\neconomic health- managing on a sustainable basis. The countries managed to run\nwith the incoming foreign exchange, carefully handling it with foreign exchange\nand import controls and executing development programmes to enable  production and poverty alleviation..  The Super Powers  made them indebted by forcing them to\nliberalize the use of  foreign exchange-\nimport everything, plush cars- live beyond their means and gave them loans at\nlow interest with even periods of no payment- to entice them, leading them to\nbecome indebted, These countries were developing their infrastructure to bring\nabout development, alleviating poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many successful infrastructure development programmes,\nall in disarray today and abolished because the IMF\u2019s Structural Adjustment\nProgramme banned the Public Sector from attending to development tasks. That\nwas to be done by the Private Sector. That paradigm never worked because the\nPrivate Sector had as its motto to make profit. \nDevelopment of the country was not in their repertoire. Added was the\nprovision that interest rates had to be high- as much as 25%- putting off all\nentrepreneurs. Imports from the Superpowers poured in  and development was put on the back burner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a host of successful programmes to talk of.  The Agricultural Marketing Programme of\nSri Lanka- purchasing produce at high rates- higher prices than what was\noffered by the traders, direct from producers and selling in the conurbations\nat low rates, compelling the private sector shop keepers to sell at low prices\nwas an acclaimed success., It arrested inflation. It had a Cannery that\nproduced many items that stalled imports. \nThere is the Handloom and Powerloom Industry of Sri Lanka and\nIndia that saw to make the countries self sufficient in all textiles.  Thre is the Comilla Pprogramme of Rural\nDevelopment in Bangladesh which brought about full employment and doubled the\nyield of paddy in Kotwali Thana in the Comilla District of Bangladesh.  There are more such programmes which have\nbecome defunct due to the IMF\u2019s Structural Adjustment Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

:Let me detail two such programmes where I myself created and\nestablished them as successes.  This is\nimportant because none can say that I speak from hearsay- without facts. Here I\nwas in sole charge in the design and implementation and no one can doubt the\nsuccess recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onbe such programme is the Youth Self Employment Programme of\nBangladesh. I left my post in Community Education in Edinburgh to assume\nduties as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor in Youth Development in Bangladesh. The\nMinistry had an array of youth activities in social,  and cultural areas and also provided\nvocational training to 40,000 youths a year in an array of some thirty\nvocations. It also had the political wing- the Jatito Juba Sangstha. Like in\nall countries youth work is highly tainted with politics. I was taken all over\nBangladesh and became acquainted with the entire works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An exact replica of the political upheavals that are currently\nhappening in Sri Lanka there were fisticuffs in the Houses of Parliament in\nBangladesh and Parliament  had not met\nfor around a year.  The Minister of Youth\nhosted  a Chinese delegation with pomp\nand pageantry at a Five Star Hotel in Dhaka and I can remember the Minister\nsinging Amar Desh, Bangladesh\u201d with everyone joining in. The next morning he\nwas arrested.  In another few days the\nMilitary took over the country n a bloodless coup d etat .in one night. The\nMilitary viewed youth work activities with scorn,  Within a day or two a meeting was held to\nabolish or scale down youth activities with The Minister for Labour and Manpower\nMr Aminul Islam in the chair. He went through the programmes that were being\nimplemented and was very critical. Realizing me as the only outsider he called\nfor my designation  and when told that I\nwas the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry, asked me what contribution I\ncould make for Bangladesh. I responded that with 40,000 youths being trained\nannually, with   most of them remaining\nunemployed at the end, we should have a self employment programme  as an integral part of vocational training to\nguide the trainees to become entrepreneurs The Secretary to the Treasury, the\nhighest administrator in Bangladesh quoted the miserable failure of an ILO\nattempt to create a self employment programme \na few years earlier and said that I was suggesting something that\ncould  never be achieved. I contested it\nand said that though the ILO failed I could assure success. My arguments with\nthe Secretary to the Treasury and a few other Secretaries of key Minstries went\non for over two hours till the Hon Minister had enough of it and  stopped all of us arguing. He said that I had\nconvinced him and immediately approved my designing and establishing a self\nemployment programme.  The Secretary to\nthe Treasury said that he will not provide any funds to which I replied that I\nneeded no new funds and will manage the additional work within the approved\nyouth budget.  I started training the\nstaff as well as the trainees the very next day. In the next 18 months, before\nI left I had established training 2000 youths and of my starter youths easily\nseventy five percent were all successful entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I  had trained the entire\nstaff of youth workers in economics and in the art of involving youths in self\nemployment- building their abilities and capacity to struggle to become\nentrepreneurs.. This Programme is today the premier programme of employment\ncreation the world has known and had guided two million youths to become\nsuccessful entrepreneurs by 2011., This Programme today guides 160,000 youths a\nyear. It is a hard programme that does not provide funds for nothing. It\nprovided training and youth workers- now turned to be economic development  specialists guided them on a daily basis to\nsuccess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was what I had suggested to implement in Edinburgh.\nEdinburgh\u2019s failure was Bangladesh\u2019s success. \nGreat Britain could do with a self employment programme on a national\nbasis making what the country needs by marshalling its youths. Unfortunately\nyouth development has been neglected in Great Britain and many cities have\nyouth unemployment at 40%. . The Colleges of Education have talented lecturers\nand Community Education officials can provide expertise, but unfortunately that\nwas not to  be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another true achievement comes from Sri Lanka. It happened when\nthe Ministry of Plan Implementation refused to approve. Import substitution\ntype of  programmes for implementation in\nmy District. As the Commissioner(called Government Agent in Sri Lanka) of the\nDistrict, I took over the leading school science lab in the evenings for\nexperimenting  to find the art of making\ncrayons. The Leader was my Planning Officer who was a chemistry graduate. We\ndid a myriad of experiments for close upon three months  working locked up in the science lab and\nfound the art of making crayons. .. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this success I established a Crayon Factory Cooperative\nIndustry at Morawaka in three weeks working day and night with my Planning\nOfficer and a Development Assistant along with a few katcheri officers training\nyouths in the art of making crayons and in quality control. It was a handmade\ncrayon like most Chinese products today. \nThis Coop Crayon Factory  was a\ngreat success and became the flagship project of the Divisional Development\nCouncils Programme , the major success of the 1970-77 Government of Prime\nMinister Sirimavo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can go on with other programmes of success but will confine\nmyself to these  for now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great Britain with its excellence in expertise in Universities and\nColleges of Education can easily take on the mantle to get the youths in\ntraining to get down to production and to guide them till they are successful.\nIn the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, the premier employment\ncreation programme the world has known the basis was that the lecturers who\ntrain the youth  will also guide them if\nthey are willing to venture out to make things for sale. To my own knowledge\nthe Lecturers at Colleges of Education in Edinburgh as well as at Westminister\ndo have the ability to guide their students to become entrepreneurs. I am doubly\ncertain of this fact. The science laboratories in Colleges of Education are far\nmore equipped that the Science lab that I used to find the art of making\ncrayons.  It follows that the Colleges of\nEducation can easily find the method of manufacturing imported items and get\ngoing with establishing production cooperatives manned by youths working under\nthe guidance of the Lecturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary  to\ndetail  another essential factor in the\ntask of employment creation. . In Edinburgh, the most successful manufacturing\nindustry was Edinburgh Crystal, a cut glass crystal manufacturer  at Peniquik. Established as far back as 1867,\nit was a show piece of Scottish workmanship. In 2006, Edinburgh Crystal was\npurchased lock stock and barrel by Waterford Wedgewood, another Crystal\nManufacturer from out of Scotland who inherited its sales, but stopped the\nEdinburgh Factory. Its trained workforce of some one hundred or more were cast\non the heap of the unemployed. On my numerous visits to Edinburgh Crystal I had\nseen the craftsmen at work. They were really skilled workmen who had been at\nthe task for a large number of years. I consider the closure of such a vibrant\nand successful manufacturing industry as a national disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my inquiries I found that Edinburgh Crystal was an industry\nthat was very hale and hearty. It was very profitable and that was the very\nreason why another multinational had its eyes on it. It was success for the\nintruder, but a great loss for Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar loss happened in Canada. That was\nBlue Mountain Pottery of Ontario beginning in 1953. Its animal\nfigurines, vases and jugs etc adorned the show cases at Harrods and Selfridges.\nThough it was a profitable concern the owners were not satisfied with the\nprofit and closed it down in 2004. I happened to visit it at its closure and\nspoke to the workers who were being laid out. They were  a hundred or more craftsmen destined to the\nscrap heap of unemployment though their products have today become well priced\ncollectors items.. This was a great loss for Canada as Blue Mountain had\nfinalized a rare process of fineness in pottery \nwhich could have taken on like the \nworld famous Lladro of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closure of Edinburgh Crystal and Blue Mountain Pottery, both\nextremely successful enterprises also brings to light the ills of the private\nsector. In neoliberal economics which UK follows. It has to be understood that\nthe motto of the Private Sector is to make a profit and the development of the\ncountry comes second. That is what happened to Edinburgh Crystal. For\nsystematic development of a lasting nature the Private Sector has to be guided\nby the State. It is the State that is interested in development. The State has\nto harness the Private Sector for development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer lies in community cooperatives where the workers as\nwell as communities tie up to establish and run manufacturing industries. Here\nwith success the venture stays in the place of origin providing work for the\npeople and the enterprise can be developed. It will not fall a prey to venture\ncapitalists that may acquire and close it down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any attempt to bring about employment creation, it is also\nnecessary to plan for the emergence of cooperatives where the community too\nwill be involved as much as the youth of that community will be the workers.\nThen the industry that is created will have a community base where members of\nthat community will take the lead to work with the workers to ensure success in\nmanufacture and sales. This is found necessary because even worker cooperatives\nwith success on their hands can  move\nfrom their area to areas of affluence leaving the area where they emerged.  In this task a major role has to be played\nby  Community Education as well as by\nColleges of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the emergence of successful cooperative entrepreneurs can\nalso be assured of support from the community. In WesterHailes if by any chance\nmy suggestions of 1980 had been approved to make entrepreneurs out of the\nyouths in training, able experienced community members were always willing to\noffer a hand to make them a success. Then once an industry is established it\nwill be the guarded treasure of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important aspect re cooperatives is that the profits go to the\ncooperative  and the cooperative workers.\nThe funds in the cooperative are for future development of the cooperative\nenterprise. The current Model of enterprise development in the capitalist world\nis the public company, where the capital is provided by nonworking investors\nwho hold shares and  the payment they\nexpect is in the dividends. In the cooperative model there is no profit for non\nworking shareholders.  And the total\nincome is for the development of the enterprise. This is an important factor\nbecause in any new enterprise profit margins have to be kept low at the initial\nstages. Thus in  new enterprise\ndevelopment it is only the cooperative model that can be expected to hold\nwater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the cooperative enterprise model that was followed by Third\nWorld countries. In the cooperative model profit making is not the aim. Instead\nthe aim is the development of the country, the creation of employment and\nbringing about production causing national development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In development the private sector has to be harnessed for the\nachievement of development goals. In this connection a further  lesson can be quoted from Sri Lanka. In the\nFifties and Sixties the Green Revolution was taking place apace in Sri Lanka\nand  the country did not have the\ncapacity to mill the paddy to rice. The Department for Development of\nAgricultural Marketing that handled rice milling imported a few rice mills and\ninstalled them at vantage places in the producing areas. Next the Department\ndrafted plans for the establishment of small scale rice mills and called for\napplications from investors.. The machinery that had to be imported was\ndetailed and the Structures and buildings that had to be built like floor space\nfor the machinery and drying floors were detailed. The private sector\nentrepreneurs were offered an allocation of foreign exchange to import the\nmachinery. At this time foreign exchange allocations were required for imports.\nAn investor  could come forward and was\nguided in the investment. I happened to be in charge of the Southern Province\nand many millers who came forward had to abide by the rules in installation. I\nsupervised the rice mills being installed. The rice miller was given an\nallocation of paddy on a weekly basis for milling for which he got paid. This\nwas a great success and overnight we built up a capacity to mill the paddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This details the  strategy\nfor the State to play a major role in development, harnessing the investors in\nthe country.  This leadership is\nessential as otherwise individual investors will not find the backing to forge\nahead.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also necessary that the different areas in Great Britain do\ndecide on the  engines of growth,\ndepending on available resources.  To\nstart with Great Britain can be divided into England, Wales and Scotland and a\ngroup of experts covering industry, community work, engineering and education\nshould undertake to arrive at the engines of growth for the area. For instance\nin Scotland, Wales and certain areas in England, tourism is an engine of\ngrowth. Accomodation has to be made available at reasonable rates. The equal of\nPremier Inn and Travelodge have to be opened in areas where  there are glorious views. There has to be\nparking places where tourists can park their vehicles and enjoy the\nscenery.  Further there have to be\nfacilities provided to motorists to rent recreation vehicles, motor caravans,\nmotor homes to tour the area. The services of institutions like the Caravan\nClub  with their caravan parks etc  can be enlisted. In every area a group\ncomprising a few  community members, a\ncivil  engineer, a representative of the\nCaravan Club a representative of the College of Education in the area could\ndraw up what infrastructure has to be provided to encourage tourism.  Similar details have to be worked out on an\narea basis. Perhaps the City and Regional Councils  can take on this task  of development.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating entrepreneurs out of the cadres that are being trained at\nColleges of Education all over the UK be it at Wester Hailes or at Westminster\nand an attempt to establish Community cooperatives out of the trained with\ncommunity expertise also playing a role perhaps is a path that can usher\neconomic development, a long felt need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of finding finance  \ncrops up. It is my contention that money can be printed. A major\ndrawback  if the created funds are from\nprint, lies in the idea that this procedure can lead to inflation. Inflation\nhas always to be avoided. It is the experience of the author that funds have to\nbe used on a strict basis. There should not be free grants. Inflation can arise\nonly when money is poured in freely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An attempt should also be made to find savings in approved\nbudgets. In the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, designed and\nimplemented by me, the most successful employment creation programme the world\nhas known where two million youths were guided to be entrepreneurs by\n2011,  the entire expenditure in the\nfirst five years was met from savings in approved budgets. The tasks were done\nby revising the remits of officers, making the lecturers who handled vocational\ntraining also handle the task of guiding the trained to become entrepreneurs.\nThis is really feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the suggestion I had\nmade to redesign the training programmes of the Manpower Services Commission in\nEdinburgh,  the extra work in guiding the\nenterprises would have been undertaken by the staff of the Community Education\nService as well as the Colleges of Education in addition to their duties.  It is my experience in handling development\nwork in four countries including Britain, that when something worthwhile is\nbeing attempted officialdom in allied institutions willingly handle the new\ntasks. They are a patriotic lot and patriotism has to be harnessed for\ndevelopment goals to become a reality.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such an attempt will bring about production, will reduce imports\nand  equip Great Britain to face the\nproblems that it will have to face from a departure from the EU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving the EU alone, such an attempt at employment creation will\nalso put Great Britain on a path to become the manufacturing hub of the world,\nwhich it actually was in the last century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is my sincere contention that instead of pleading  and begging from the Garniers and  Merkels, an attempt should be made to revive\nthe British economy and things will then move in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May this Paper be debated and the ideas suggested be changed as\nappropriate and developed on to enable the creation of a sustainable economy.\nLet me hope this could commence in a few areas \nlike Edinburgh or London or where there will be interested officers in\nColleges of Education or Universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my thinking therein lies the path for Great Britain to be great\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M.A. Sri Lanka, M.Ed Manchester, M.Phil Edinburgh, Ph.D.Michigan\nState University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Garvin Karunaratne Message for Sri Lankan readers Sri Lanka with other Third World countries has achieved a status of high indebtedness due to following the neoliberal policies embedded in the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF. . In that process its assets and riches are being sucked dry by multinationals, International banks  and Developed […]<\/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-87259","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\/87259","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=87259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}