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Webinar and Online Discussion on Task Force for Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication of Sri Lanka - Professional Excellence Group of Engineers IntroductionEng. Shavindranath Fernando commenced the meeting at 11.00 AM. All who were there give a brief introduction of themselvesEng.Shavindranath Fernando in his opening remarks, made a brief introduction on the objectives of the discussion. He congratulated Eng. Rohan Seneviratne on his appointment as a member of the Presidential Task Force for Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication of Sri Lanka and invited Eng. Seneviratne to explain the TOR of the Task Force and what he would expect from his fellow engineers during the discussion Eng. Rohan Seneviratne gave a comprehensive outline on the purpose and TOR of the Task Force for Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication of Sri Lanka.The task force was formed on April 22, 2020 by HE the President and is chaired by Mr. Basil Rajapakse.ObjectivesEconomic revival and eradication of poverty and paying a special attention to the aftermath of Covid19Create a production economy based on agriculture and industryPromote entrepreneurshipCreate a people centric economy.TORLook into challenges and opportunities of Covid19Proposals shall be aligned with “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour” “???????????????” Manifesto of HE the President. No area restriction. Development in any area is accepted.Some of the major components stated in the gazette too were explained. Eng. Rohan Seneviratne said he wishes to mainly focus on the following areas and invited the participants to contribute on them. Power sectorDigital transformationDigital signature has been almost worked outE-Procurement methodsEconomyAny other proposals.Proposals Received During the DiscussionEng. Keerthi Kodithuwakku stated that we should look into the better side of Covid19 pandemic and consider it as an acceleration of the 4th industrial revolution. He further mentioned that Sri Lanka can be developed by encouraging the services rendering through Digital platforms. Eng. Kodithuwakku presented two examples of E-consultation for medicine and E-marketing as successful endeavours that has caught up during the pandemic.Eng. Iresha Somarathna presented his views on how to make this an opportunity to attract large multinational companies like Apple or their supply companies to Sri Lanka highlighting the import export gap in Sri Lankan context. He mentioned that due to the current situation, countries tend to move away from China for their product manufacturing as an example Japan is willing to fund their companies to shift the factories outside China and likewise, we have to get the advantage of this dynamic shift. Hence by pitching them we will be able to get a few factories to Sri Lanka. He further stated that now we should focus on bringing down more technically oriented projects to the country.Most of the companies that are willing to step outside China are looking for India and Viet Nam for the time being and we should be looking at ways how to attract them to Sri Lanka. Even apparel industry will have to evolve to an advanced stage where more cutting-edge technology is involved. Eng. Lalith Kahatapitiya presented a few proposals in brief. (Detailed proposals are appended below) Avoiding all unnecessary imports, and facilitating import substitutionReduce oil and coal imports by seeking alternative energy sourcesConsider the post Covid situation as a golden opportunity for the Sri Lankan IT professionals and entrepreneurs. Encourage entrepreneurs to become exporters by activating BOI, EDB and IDB to be effective , aggressive and result oriented by giving higher targets through the task force and compel them to achieve those targetsSetting up measurable targets for all government institution. as it is severely hindering the growth of GDP. It is estimated that the migrant workers’ contribution to the country’s economy is less than 25% of that of a person working within the country.Establishing a Ministry of Manpower to ensure availability of manpower requirementSave the foreign Exchange spent for Education in foreign countries by establishing higher educational Institutions and not close them. Continuous economic development through Inculcating good human valuesFor undisturbed economic development ethnic harmony is essentialEng. Dammika Darmadasa made two proposals.Establish a sophisticated testing facility/ an institution where we can test high accuracy instruments, get them regulated and certified.Introducing technology (Drone based agriculture, feedback on fertilizer) to agricultural sector by involving more machinery to the sector.At this point Eng. Shavindranath Fernando invited DG National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERDC) Eng. Ananda Namal to elaborate on the Standard training, Prototyping and Testing Facility (SPTF) its current status and the plans. Eng. Ananda Namal stated that NERDC has already initiated to establish a high grade testing facility SPTF. He further said few equipment had already been imported and installed in SLINTEC Premise allocated to the NERDC to set up this facility . He further said this is a 5 Billion LKR project to facilitate engineering design and product development where entrepreneurs will be provide necessary facilities for product development Prototyping and Testing to at affordable costs. Eng. Dr. ManjulaWickramasinghe and Eng.Shyamal DLR both suggested promoting local manufacturers to substitute current imports of tools such as (drilling machines) and consumables (welding rods, grinding wheels etc.) by directing SME to manufacturing sector. For this they suggested the following:Control and limit the imports may be by imposing tax when there are local manufacturers available and support them Price concessions for local manufacturers as China can give competitive prices Further he elaborated the difficulties faced when obtaining loans from local banksLoan/funding mechanism for SME as local manufacturing has to be well supported financially and protect them to compete in the local market at least for some time until the local manufacturers are able to compete with imports and also promote exports. Eng. Chinthaka Abeysekera expressed his views based on a few of his experiences in some projects. He stated that we are far behind in inviting companies to Sri Lanka. Further he explained the difficulties we have to face dealing with big companies with our policies and their transparencies etc. which makes the situation unpleasant for the investors.He suggested requesting BOI to work as a one stop shop for foreign investors to do projects in Sri Lanka. Further, he suggested to encourage the foreign investors by enhancing the government support with transparent Tax policies for projects, Project partnership and support by relevant ministries and government agencies as well as the law of the country.Eng. Dayantha Jayaratne proposed to establish a facility (CRM) to gather and compile data for the task force as they will receive many proposals and that they do not want to miss out any important information. He proposed to encourage reverse brain drain where we can get the proposals checked by the experts who have worked overseas in relevant sectors using their experience and expertise to avoid mistakes the most of the countries have made. Further he stated that we need a solid plan for strong infrastructure such as Energy security (installed capacity to be 4 times the demand) and Water security even for the digital infrastructure for digitalization. To improve quality of life energy sector has to be stable.Eng. Parakrama Jayasinghe commended the HE's plan of 80% renewable by 2030 in the energy sector.Further, three proposals were discussed;Being nondependent on energy Energy being indigenous CEB should take up the total energy sector as a whole Eng. Binura Perera explained how they have incorporated cloud based applications for operation and maintenance in the apparel industry.Further he explained how the employees can be given tasks that can be done at home in case the things won’t get settled soon. Furthermore, he stated that we should take the advantage of the early recovery as many of the countries competing with us in many industries (Bangladesh, India) won’t make it that soon. Home based production based on digitalization techniques should be looked at.Eng. Dileepa Lathsara . He stated that to facilitate the investors we have to have resilient infrastructure. We have to think of the ‘New Normal’. Eng. Indika Walpitage submitted a written proposal which he explained briefly and is attached . He proposed to develop the ICT infrastructure to promote Cash less society. He further elaborated the opportunities of cash less society like E-payment, mobile payment, Efficient and Convenient common platform for all payments etc. He also stated that it can be used as a platform to centralize all the systems (i.e toll gates, ticketing, bills). He explained how they have implemented Remote consult the doctor support. Eng. Walpitage also proposed to encourage the ICT industry to provide services outside Sri Lanka. Further, he proposed to digitalize the activities like election and to enforce Laws for digitalization.Eng. Heminda explained their achievements in implementing the world’s cheapest graphite to graphene process and manufacturing batteries from it. He further stated that SLINTEC has already started introducing technology to agriculture.Eng. Sarath Gamini made several proposals.To implement a database of all imports to Sri Lanka with country of manufacturer and quantity and the HS code which is available to the public & . support for SME by introducing tariff structureTo implement a database of public, family and location with the status of employment To implement a transparent approval process where the status can be observed on the web and strict monitoring system as the public regulatory measures are not in orderTo train labor and to take steps to change the attitudeEng. Dayan Herath discussed the challenge of energy requirements to cater to economic development and energy mainstreaming. Due to aboveelectricity demand will be dramatically increased and we need to have proper plans to meet the requirement. He also proposed to encourage short term educated foreign employment for young professionals just after their academic courses (i.e.Engineers) to absorb the technology into the country. Further, he proposed to establish an Interconnection between the professionals and institutions so that the facilities in each institution will be utilized to its maximum and would not be idle while other institutions have to get the same facility by a foreign company. During the Online discussion many useful chat messages were received which the participants did not have an opportunity to express. The following are the chat messages received:EngPriyamalSamarasinhe: inquired the possibility of making use of the Trincomalee Oil tanks and making use of them to store Oil at cheap rates.Eng. NamaliSiyambalapitiya requested a similar forum to discuss the construction Industry which will face a serious difficulty to revamp. ConclusionEng. ShavindranathFernando thanked Eng Rohan Senevitratne for making his time available to the forum and the opportunity made available for the Professional Excellence Group to make their proposals open to him. He also thanked everyone for actively taking part and apologized to those who could not be given adequate time for making their suggestions and their proposals. He promised to make the report available at the shortest possible time and summon a meeting to discuss and finalise the report and further strengthening the proposals,. He requested each of the participants who made verbal presentations and all others to make their proposals inwriting which willbe incorporated in the final report.Summary: To be developed …. Written CommentsLalith KahatapitiyaAvoiding all unnecessary imports, & facilitating import substitutionIt is interesting to note the approximate annual expenditure for the import of food & beverages alone amounts to US$ 1.6 Billions! There are many other such areas where we spend valuable foreign exchange on the import of non-essential and unnecessary items.So, efforts need to be directed on discouraging importation of such goods by imposing heavy customs duties, cess, etc., whilst facilitating import substitution wherever possible.Reduce Annual imports of Petroleum products plus coal which is around US$ 4.0 Billions.Energy sector policies need to be directed to optimise the use of energy, whilst encouraging & facilitating generation of renewable energy. This will reduce both environmental pollution & our dependence on oil imports. Shifting from oil to renewable energy generation can be made an objective of the Ceylon electricity board, giving them suitable targets. Then they will concentrate on cost effective & environmentally friendly renewable energy production instead of conventional fuel oil based power generation.Simultaneously, the government & the private sector could facilitate different methods of executing work remotely, aimed at minimising requirement for travel.A Golden opportunity for the Sri Lankan IT professionals & entrepreneursIf Sri Lankan IT professionals and entrepreneurs can come up with suitable home grown software packages for facilitating remote working, instead of the popular international software available, most of the foreign exchange we spend to buy international software can be saved within the country plus it also creates an opportunity for them to develop such systems and get into international markets and earn foreign exchange.An initiative & an assurance from the government towards this direction will encourage most of our IT professionals and entrepreneurs to work on this direction.Activate BOI, EDB & IDB to be effective & aggressive & produce resultsThere are 3 government institutions for the development of foreign direct Investments, develop exports & develop Industries. Namely, the BOI, EDB & IDB respectively. Analysing the results they produced during the past 10 years will make it clear that their contributions had been poor if not negligible. So, it is vital that each of these institutions are given short- & long-term tough targets to achieve, & put those institutions under proper result-oriented leaderships.Setting up measurable Targets for all government InstitutionsBased on the vision of the “SaubhagyayeDekma”, policy statement, set measurable & ambitious targets to each & every government institution to produce results. All heads of institutions need to be accountable for achieving expected results.This is a step with utmost importance, as continuous monitoring of the results produced by each department & division is vital for tracking the progress towards the vision.Stop promoting foreign employment as it is severely hindering the growth of GDPPast governments had been trapped in a paradigm that encouraging & sending our workforce for foreign employment will help the economy of the country, because they saw some foreign exchange coming in to the country, & they were trying to increase that.This is a total myth & a wrong approach!A simple calculation of the annual contribution to GDP by a worker working within the country, versus the annual contribution received per one migrant worker will prove that migrant workers’ contribution to the country’s economy is less than 25% of that of a person working within the country!Please do this exercise for a few years in the past, & you will see how much we have hindered the growth of our GDP by promoting foreign employment.Establishing a Ministry of Manpower to ensure availability of manpower requirementDue to our workforce going abroad or resorting to driving 3-wheelers, there's a scarcity of skilled & unskilled workers in the country. It is vital that we have a Ministry of Manpower to monitor & regulate manpower requirements of the country. This ministry needs to ensure that there’s no scarcity of manpower in the country by opening the labour market for the required number of foreign workers to fill in vacuums. Example: Singapore Ministry of Manpower. I am not sure whether this can be done through the labour ministry.This way, the country will never be short of manpower to eradicate poverty through development of the country.Save the foreign Exchange spent for Education in foreign countriesA colossal amount of foreign exchange is spent every year to educate our children in various other countries and foreign universities. Attempts to have such institutions within the country had been made by entrepreneurs from time to time, but due political interferences those had been blocked or destroyed. As a result, the country is losing a lot of foreign exchange every year for the education of our own children. If suitable policies are established, legislation passed and assurances given to entrepreneurs to start such colleges, universities & institutions not only we can save foreign exchange, but we could attract foreign exchange into the country by providing services to foreign students.Continuous economic development through Inculcating good human valuesThis can easily be achieved by first identifying the exact values that we need to inculcate in to the lives of our citizens irrespective of their ethnicities & making it compulsory for all media channels, institutions to daily run campaigns to drive these values in to the minds of people. This applies to media in all three main languages in the country. What I meant here are values such as: being trustworthy, being empathetic towards others, creating a positive environment around every person, etc,.For undisturbed economic development ethnic harmony is essentialHence, while driving great values in to the citizens, a special focus need to be made on building up strong ethnic harmony. All media institutions in all 3 languages need to compulsorily support this endeavor. Any attempts to harm or destroy ethnic harmony in the country need to be severely dealt with, as ethnic harmony is essential for the development of a Nation. Eng.Priyal de Silva??RAIL TRANSPORT??I am a comparatively ?old person in comparison to? most of you. So everything that I wish to submit ?does not come to my mind immediately. But as and when I remember something useful that can be implemented I may write to you. I hope ?you will accommodate.??This is in regard to import of ?new carriages for the Railway to run with Power locos. ?We call the entire set, ie the power loco and the carriages a power set??1.I had already recommended ?when I was in service,? instead of importing brand new carriages in full, to import carriages in Completely Knocked Down (CKD) or to begin with at least in Half knocked down condition, so that they could be assembled using our labour (Railway itself or outsource to Private sector). Thus we will save much on foreign exchange as well as ?create job opportunities within Sri Lanka.?2.In 2004/2005 Vegetables were transported by train from Nanu –oya, in special Carriages modified locally with shelves and getting sufficient air inside. Hope this can be restarted in conjunction with railway and private sector. This service can also be started from Kekirawa or Habarana, which are stations closer to Dambulla ?Similarly Fish can be transported by night mail trains from Talaimannar , Trinco, and may be Batticaloa.?3. During the same time ?more than 40% of fuel was transported by train islandwide. Out ?of this 80% of the fuel required for upcountry was carried by train. This was organized and monitored? carefully so that turn round of waggons were prompt for re use. This can be easily arranged by speaking to CPC, and of course Railway requires to be efficient in the wagon turn round process. Fuel saving from bowsers transporting fuel, less road damage, and less road accidents due to driver fatigue etc?4.Railway should give up? normal ticketing for suburban travel, and instead organize a card ?which can be recharged at authorized establishments. Initially at suburban stations? machines should be installed to detect the? card at the time of getting on and getting off from the train, so that the fare could be deducted automatically. I recommend initially this can be tried as a CSR project with little or no capital investment by the Govt. The benefit could be advertising in stations and may be waiving off a acceptable percentage on Income tax in relation to the investment done by the Private party. Advantage - Handling of cash at railway stations can be reduced remarkably, ?hygienic issues are less and dealing with change and customers are not inconvenienced being short of change money.?5. Railway Authorities ?should also consider ?breaking the suburban system into Zones without ??having individual ticket prices from station to station. This can be implemented with 4 above.??6.To have a well coordinated Bus service from stations inconjunction with SLCTB and NTC. Monetary saving to commuters and saving journey time.7.You are aware that access to BIA by rail is ?only from Puttalam line, that is the deviation at Ragama from the main line. This access is convenient to those who travel to the BIA from southern areas of ?the country. Those travelling from the northern and eastern areas they have to come all the way down to Ragama and await the arrival of the airport train.? Similarly those who disembark from flights at BIA if they require to travel North bound or even to East of the country, ?the train does not become a viable mode of transport.?? In and around 2013, I was working as a Consultant to a Japanese firm in preparation of the feasibility study for BIA phase 3, where one of te items in the TOR was to have access by train to BIA. In this report I have recommended to bring the ?rail tracks which lead to Airport station to be brought? another 500m towards the Airport and the ?passengers to have access through escalators and conveyors to the terminal building. Access to the Cargo terminal too have been resolved ?due to the extension of the rail track.?Further, I too recommended that there should be a new access by rail to? BIA from Gampaha, so as to facilitate the North and East bound travelers to the Airport and from the Airport. This could be later considered for through traffic from Gampaha to Negombo through BIA, thus giving direct link to two important towns in the Gampaha district.Eng. Piyal HennayakeProposal 1: Reduce Traffic Congestion Via a Smartphone App and Electronic SignageProposal 2: Implement a National Transport Card for Public Transport (busses and trains) to Minimize Revenue Loss to GovernmentProposal 3: For a Limited Period Provide Incentives to Citizens by Waiving off Commissions Charged from the Merchants Who Engage in Digital Transactions Using Local Mobile Payment Modes to Reduce the Usage of CashProposal 4: Minimize the Current Foreign Exchange Outflow by Locally Routing All Domestic Interbank Transactions Made Using International Card SchemesProposal 5: Ensure that Local Taxes are Collected from Foreign App Based Service Providers (with certain limited exceptions)Proposal 6(a): Develop a “Sri Lanka National Cloud (with Service Level Agreements)” to Support All Government and Commercial BusinessesProposal 6(b): Leverage The “Sri Lanka National Cloud” to Provide a Regional (Asia/Middle East) Low Latency Cloud Service for International Cloud ProvidersProposal 7: Provide an Open Source Education Platform for Sri LankaEng. IndikaWalpitage:1.Expediting the implementation e government systems preferably through one front ending social system supported up by different back end systems which include getting Identity cards, passports, birth certificates , driving license maintaining health records, welfare, taxation ( induvial) , EPF, pension , rate taxes for Municipal Councils/Urban councils, land registries . This will save huge among of travelling requirements, paper works , space requirements at offices . Further will add convenience. The savings can be channeled to other priority national developments.2.Move towards Cashless Society- people getting into secure e -payments , mobile payments. This is mainly to drive productivity . For example Chinese society mainly use multi purpose platforms like “we chat “ to do money transactions. We have ETC at Expressway ..but isolated , several other e -pay options, but should have a National level epay platform integrated into applications. Handling hard currency is not a healthy practices, especially during a pandemic situation3.Use of e- learning , remote learning.. withCovid -19 we have seen increasingly use of collaboration platforms like Msteams, Zoom . They save huge amount of time money. Schools , universities have gone on- line and using LMS ( learning management systems). Though the education or work environment need physical , face to face involvement we can adopt collaboration tools to reduce costs, improve productivity. 4.Use of IOT- E.g remote metering ( water , electricity) , smart agriculture , smart medicine .. ., e.g Many people use 1390 service (remote doctor support) in this situation..5.Make our ICT industry giving services more and more outside Sri lanka . Several companies doing this, but more can be done. Good source of Foreign exchange income. At this moment our exports and tourism is heavily impacted . Good way of providing employment.6.Make legacy processes into Digital – Can we try E-voting Nationally for National elections? Shall bring in efficiency and cost reduction.7.Legislations as required to support above Eng. ParakramaJayasingheAlso through another group, I am working with the proposal for the transport of vegetables by train was also included. We suggested a much wider coverage as below.1.???????Allocate one compartment on trains of the following Railway Lines (RL)?for the transportation of agricultural produces, in order to reduce transportation cost.a.????????Hambantota RL???:?(Suriyawewa, Thanamalwila, Embilipitiya, Ambalanthota, Ranna, Angunukolapelessa)b.??????Puttlam RL??????????:?(Norochchole, Puttlam, Anamaduwa, Chilaw, Wanathawilluwa, Karuwalagaswewa)c.????????Badulla RL????????????:?(Welimada, Bandarawela, Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy)d.??????Jaffna RL???????????????:?(Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Anuradhapura, Thambuttegama, Dambulla, Galewela)e.??????Trinco RL??????????????:?(Seruwila, Kantale)f.????????Batticaloa RL???????:?(Welikanda, Polonnaruwa)This? initiative is to be carried out via a PPP model, where the Private Sector will set up the cold room in the compartment and manage the operation. This collaboration shall operate on a profit share model between Sri Lanka Railways and the Private entity.I also fully support your proposals for assembly of the carriages. This should be only the starting point for much more ambitious programs. For a long time, I have been most appalled by the lack of adequate use of the many facilities available with the SLR both physical and HR which is well placed to take on much more work and even assist other departments.? My best workers when working at SEC and afterward came from CGR. Even now I am sure SLR has a lot of talented engineers who can take up this challenge.This is the ideal time to make this change. Let us hope that Rohan can help us with this.Eng.ChameeraRajapaksheShort term issuesIn order to start the construction projects and small, medium and large-scale factories, Manpower has to be mobilized to the required centers asap, but mobilization?the process is not as easy as we thought.Laborers are required to get a Certificate from the respective PHI in their area, and most of the PHIs are not issuing the Certificate as they don’t monitor or don’t know the people who request a clearance certificate. So, they simply ask to meet Gram Niladhari, but they can’t give such assurance certificate.Curfew passes can be arranged to travel across the Districts, base on the working basis. but even if they travel to their new accommodations or sites if they don’t have any clearance certificate, they are asked to two weeks self-quarantine in their accommodations or sites by the PHIs in those areas?even if the followed the health guidelines.So, there should be a proper way of conducting the laborer's mobilization process, such as conduction of PCR tests by its employer or any other way of identifying for infected people rather than self-quarantine for two weeks each time they mobilized.?Medium- and Long-term actionsHIGH Population and Environmental ImpactHow far can go by consuming the environment at this rate (rate is continuously increasing with the population and lifestyle)? We currently face new environmental terms such as high air pollution levels and high-temperature zones with in the country.?Population itself a pandemic. As the Government, now it is the time to implement population control policies to the country.1.???????Higher the population2.???????higher the consumptions (Food, Electricity, Water, LPG, Biomass, Oil, and medicine, etc.)3.???????Higher the productions (Food, Electricity, Water, LPG, Biomass, Oil and etc)4.???????Higher the Bandwidth (highways, Electricity Gen and Transmission, water lines)5.???????More traffic jams, conjected cities,6.???????More and more environmental pollutions (Air, Water and soil pollution, deforestation, high land use)7.? ? ? ?Colossal?and frequent environmental disasters8.???????Stressed people in a polluted environment >>>> future sick society?Thus,should implement the following policies asap1.???????Pullulation control2.???????Production and construction process control (The environmentally healthy way)3.???????Transport efficiency control (enough and quality public transport, fuel-burning efficiency control, vehicles importation control, city traffic jam controlling)4.???????Reforestation and maintenance, etc... ................
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