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Overcoming challenges in seeking dollars 

07 Jan 2022

By Janath S. Fernando  It is not a secret that Covid-19 has increased the distance between developed countries and developing countries. Even though most of the developed countries are also still struggling with the pandemic, this has opened a large number of income methods for these countries. Covid-19 vaccines are the best example. Now all the countries are buying these vaccines from developed countries and this has become something like water, food, and shelter for humans.  While the developed countries are enjoying the new incomes mask season created, the developing countries like Sri Lanka are suffering because of the economic crisis the mask season created. Someone can say that this is not only because of Covid-19 and this is also because of the malpractices of the economic management of previous and the current governments. Leaving the opinions behind anyhow now the country is struggling to supply basic needs like fertiliser, milk powder, vegetables, fuel, flour, and gasoline.  It is important to understand that a change and an advancement are needed to face the crisis, instead of requesting loans from other countries. There are times that we do need to go for loans. Investments and developments are such incidents and if a country is going for loans to manage daily expenses of the country it’s not a good practice and at a point, the economy will hit the lifestyle of the country massively. But, when these practices take the economy to the worst case the Government doesn’t have an option other than going for foreign loans.  The time has come for the Government to sit and write a new chapter on the Sri Lanka economy. While protecting and enhancing the current practices it’s important to go for new income methods to face the crisis. It’s important to understand that a country cannot grow and earn by closing gates to the entire world. With the developments in the world and new trends in the world, it’s so important to keep up the import and export relationships with other countries.  Let’s take an example. If a country bans all imports and tries to uplift its economy via exports, that is impractical. When a ship comes empty to a country to take something in the country to another destination, the country that exports these goods has to spend a lot of money on transportation costs. If the same ship is coming to the country with goods, unloads them there and loads some other thing in that country, and then returns, there are two countries to bear the transportation cost of the ship. So the cost of goods stays steady in the country, and if the country is depending only on exports, the prices of goods inside the country go up.  This doesn’t mean that a country should always give first place to imports; countries should encourage the local producers to cater to the local requirement while planning to target the export market as well. When a government keeps discouraging the local producers, farmers and entrepreneurs, there will be no second step in the economy of the country. This is something Sri Lanka is experiencing at the moment as a result of poor decisions that the previous and current governments have taken.  Four suggestions to take one step up
  • Promoting Sri Lanka for elderly tourism via the ‘Seniors’ Village’ concept
The majority of the senior citizens in developed countries like to spend their retirement with nature. They prefer travelling to locations that are comfortable for them. Most of these seniors are good spenders too. Sri Lanka can work on a tourism development concept to cater to this market. The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion BUreau (SLTPB) along with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) can develop a “Seniors’ Village” where these foreign senior citizens can book for a longer period.  Most of these guests are long-stay guests who will stay a minimum of one month, and these guests do love to have organic vegetables, fruits, and freshwater fish, and they also like to get Ayurveda treatments. Sri Lanka is world-famous for Ayurveda treatments and this is also an advantage to market this concept. Not only that; these guests love to walk and jog in village tracks, where they can experience the local lifestyle while improving the relationship with local communities.  Some foreigners want to accommodate their parents in these types of seniors’ villages when they want to travel to other destinations. This concept is something that Sri Lanka can practice to find an answer to its dollar issue. 
  • Tourism and hospitality education
Sri Lanka is world-famous for its hospitality, smiles, and respect towards tourists. That is a reason why the majority of the hotel and tourism industry professionals who have studied in Sri Lanka work in other countries, even as general managers and business development professionals.  The majority of these products are from the Government-owned Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM, formerly the Ceylon hotel school). By using Sri Lanka’s level of hospitality as a marketing tool, it’s possible to start up our tourism and hospitality training institutes in countries where tourism is famous. This will help the country earn euros and dollars.  At the moment, hundreds of foreign hospitality institutions have signed agreements with Sri Lankan private universities through which our country is also losing the foreign reservoirs we have. Being a top-ranked tourism and hospitality destination in the world, it’s not a good practice to motivate foreign tourism and hospitality institutions when the state-owned and top ranked Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management is available in the country. Just an expansion to take the institution worldwide has to be done to keep the next step of our hospitality.
  • ‘The Sri Lanka Shop’ 
Sri Lankan export products are always dependent on foreign resellers, value adders, and mediators. It is important to have our own, government-owned centre in foreign countries to sell our coconut, coconut oil, gems, tea, rubber products, spices, organic rice, and other organic products, masks, cane products, apparel, and clothing, etc.  This is a supermarket kind of a concept where we can place all our Sri Lankan products. The export development board can take the initiative for this with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Indirectly this is something that creates awareness of Sri Lankan culture and via that there will be tourists rushing to come and have a look at how these products are made.
  • Focus on public-private partnerships with foreign companies to develop and maintain national infrastructure 
Facilitating the country and its citizens is something impossible when the country is in an economic mess and instability. When people of the country are struggling, it acts as an advertisement to the world which says “do not come here or do not invest here”. This is a very bad situation for a country. None of the tourists like to see and listen to the sorrows of people when they go for a vacation, none of the investors are happy to invest in a country where people are struggling even to have their main three meals and education.   So controlling and managing the voice of people is very important, and this cannot be done by force as well. The only way is to make them happy and facilitate their development. When there is no money, how can a government make people happy? Public-private partnerships (PPP) are the only option to do so without touching the foreign currency reservoirs of a country. Sri Lanka can ask foreign companies to do construction, renovation, or maintenance of local infrastructure and to own the property or the service for some time for them to make an income and handover back to the Government.  As an indirect benefit, Sri Lanka can increase the number of foreign currency reservoirs by practicing this, as those foreign companies bring foreign currency to the country. At some point, we will have to pay an amount back in dollars, but as a quick decision to come out of the current crisis, this will be a solution.  Above are only a few areas that our politicians and Government professionals can work on when they are going for official visits to other countries. Earning is always better than depending on loans. When taking a loan for a country, the party giving the loan has an agenda that they do not disclose; especially when taking a loan for a country like Sri Lanka, as resources are everywhere in Sri Lanka. We might not have dollars, but we are rich in nature, manpower, brains, industries, agriculture, fisheries, culture, heritage, sun, sea, sand, and also natural harbours. These are like small batteries with high voltage. We have not even used 10% of the above-mentioned resources to earn money for the country.  Selling national resources can be taken as the worst decision that a country or a government can take. Even though people give their vote to a political party to take control of the government, that doesn’t mean the politicians can sell these resources. Hiring a caretaker for a plot of land doesn’t mean that the caretaker can sell trees and the tube well in the land. This is something we need to understand: Resources are to make money with, and not to earn money from.  (The writer is a student of the University of Colombo Tourism Study programme) ………………………….. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.


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