Lack of labour force the biggest challenge: NCE President
Lack of labour force the biggest challenge: NCE President
January 13, 2014
By Samantha Nayakarathna
Ceylon FT: The Central bank statistics show that earnings from exports grew by 5.6% to US$ 9,400 million during the first nine months of 2013. Industrial exports grew by 4.1% and agricultural exports grew by 10.6% during the same period of 2013.
In this back ground Ceylon FT spoke to
Dr. Jagath Peiris the President of National Chamber of Exporters to get his views about year 2014 and beyond.
“2014 is good for the industries, because signals have been given at the road map for lending rate rates to come down so that industries can borrow at a lower cost. Right now our biggest problem is; we cannot expand because of local of capital. At the last budget lot of concessions were given for import substitution; therefore 2014 will be a good year for industries and exporters as well,” Dr. Peiris said.
When questioned about the current exchange rate and electricity prices, he said, “I don’t think any exporter is expecting a rupee depreciation; we are quite comfortable with current rate. We don’t expect an increase in electricity cost. But global oil prices might increase; so that can result in the energy cost going up.”
Speaking about the challenges faced by exporters Dr. Peiris said, “The major challenge we have right now is non- availability of labour force because unemployment rate is so low, so it’s very difficult to find people to work in our industries. People have their own choices.”
According to the NCE the Production cost of the local industry sector has gone up by 15% due to the high electricity and labour cost. Therefore exporters are of the view that value addition is of utmost importance to face the competition.
“We have to do two things. One is value addition and the other is looking at new markets. We have been mainly focusing on our traditional markets. It is only now that people have identified that traditional markets are not going to expand. Therefore we have to look at new markets. But the problem is we cannot immediately get into new markets.”
“We need value addition because our cost of production is going up so we are not in position to compete on cost basis.”
Lack of labour force the biggest challenge: NCE President
January 13, 2014 By Samantha Nayakarathna
Ceylon FT: The Central bank statistics show that earnings from exports grew by 5.6% to US$ 9,400 million during the first nine months of 2013. Industrial exports grew by 4.1% and agricultural exports grew by 10.6% during the same period of 2013.
In this back ground Ceylon FT spoke to
Dr. Jagath Peiris the President of National Chamber of Exporters to get his views about year 2014 and beyond.
“2014 is good for the industries, because signals have been given at the road map for lending rate rates to come down so that industries can borrow at a lower cost. Right now our biggest problem is; we cannot expand because of local of capital. At the last budget lot of concessions were given for import substitution; therefore 2014 will be a good year for industries and exporters as well,” Dr. Peiris said.
When questioned about the current exchange rate and electricity prices, he said, “I don’t think any exporter is expecting a rupee depreciation; we are quite comfortable with current rate. We don’t expect an increase in electricity cost. But global oil prices might increase; so that can result in the energy cost going up.”
Speaking about the challenges faced by exporters Dr. Peiris said, “The major challenge we have right now is non- availability of labour force because unemployment rate is so low, so it’s very difficult to find people to work in our industries. People have their own choices.”
According to the NCE the Production cost of the local industry sector has gone up by 15% due to the high electricity and labour cost. Therefore exporters are of the view that value addition is of utmost importance to face the competition.
“We have to do two things. One is value addition and the other is looking at new markets. We have been mainly focusing on our traditional markets. It is only now that people have identified that traditional markets are not going to expand. Therefore we have to look at new markets. But the problem is we cannot immediately get into new markets.”
“We need value addition because our cost of production is going up so we are not in position to compete on cost basis.”
