Dealing with the elephant next door Economic and Technical Collaboration with foreign countries
Etcetera friendsby Kumar David-March 5,
The Economic & Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India has still to be published and it seems the government, unfortunately but understandably, has been forced by lobbies and vested interests to back down on crucial aspects. Nevertheless I spent last week discussing international, not just Indian, collaboration and I will mention the participants at three of these gatherings. A three hour session was with five highly regarded engineers with decades of local and foreign experience in government and/or private sectors. Their expertise was in construction, hydrology, environmental engineering, water-supply and telecoms. The sixth less notable participant with an electrical supply systems background was yours faithfully. In addition to practical experience three of them had PhDs and the other three solid MSc degrees – not dime-a-dozen MBAs.
The second was a gathering of 90 engineers, 70 from overseas, who were here for a reunion. I spent a weekend with them in Kandy. A third discussion was with a Left parliamentarian, a democratic activist and a journalist who runs a website and edits a magazine in Sinhala. There is much merit in reflecting on all these conversations. Two conclusions summarise the gist of it.
1. There is no doubt Lanka must reach economic and technical arrangements with other countries, mainly but not only Asian. First the Indian dish on the table must be dealt with.
2. There is no doubt that the devil will be in the details. Hence skill is needed in formulating the protocols. Keep our fingers crossed that our ETCA negotiators are up to the task.
Why Lanka needs this deal
Leaving for later essential precautions and caveats, the bottom line is this: Correctly structured economic and technical collaboration agreements are desirable – Why? Face it; we need the bucks! Medium and long-term growth is predicated on, if not large, at least moderately large levels of investment. We cannot generate adequate resources in the domestic sector alone; hence overseas investment is a sine qua non. FDI from the West is lacklustre - local economic commentators show little understanding of why. They don’t see that it is not anything to do with Lanka that is keeping investors away – if anything the new government and its political dispensation are darlings of Western capitalism.
