Sri Lanka Needs Less Number of Politicians and More Number of Technologists

What Sri Lanka urgently needs is short term action plan as well as long term action plan.by N.

S.VenkataramanThere are rumours that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had to take over the finance portfolio also, since no member of Sri Lankan parliament was willing to take up this challenge of managing the country's finance.

Instead of looking at the scenario in such negative manner, it would be appropriate to think that Prime Minister taking over the finance portfolio also is a progressive step , as the finance portfolio requires the maximum attention at this stage. While the Sri Lankan government is negotiating with IMF to get financial assistance , it appears that the decision of IMF is yet to be taken firmly.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan government approached the World Bank and it is said that the World Bank ruled out any new assistance to Sri Lanka , until an adequate macro economic policy framework would be in place. World Bank has said that it was working with IMF and other development partners to advise an appropriate policies to restore economic stability in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka government is losing time, as the shortages in fuel and other essentials are creating restive conditions amongst the people.It is said that Sri Lanka has decided to seek fresh assistance of 500 million USD from India to augment it's fuel imports.

So far, it appears that only India has responded to Sri Lanka's need with great sense of urgency and good will. But there is a limit to the capability of India to financially help Sri Lanka , since India is a developing country with a huge population.

Obviously, Sri Lanka government, instead of thinking that external loan and grant would be the only solution, has to look within and examine all possibilities to augment the country's resources and earnings and develop a time bound contingency action plan on the economic front. However, it appears that such plans are yet to be evolved and announced to the people with clarity.

What Sri Lanka urgently needs is short term action plan as well as long term action plan.There are some announcements such as about the plans to advertise plots for studies on oil exploration in the Mannar basin , privatisation of loss making national carrier Sri Lanka Airlines, printing more money to pay state sector employees etc.

These steps will not happen anytime soon and do not create confidence that Sri Lanka government is capable of solving the economic issues . Printing more currency is not the elegant...