Do ‘business as usual’, expect results to be usual: Dr. De Mel

Panel session at CA Sri Lanka CEOs Breakfast Forum in progress

• Cautions doing business as usual could result in missing IMF target
• Asserts either economy or vested interests can survive, not both

Sri Lanka getting about ‘business as usual’ will only produce the same results, which is an area the crisis-hit nation must try its best to steer away from, a senior economist cautioned.

Verite Research Executive Director Dr. Nishan de Mel highlighted at a forum recently that by engaging in business as usual in the last 56 years, Sri Lanka has failed to complete seven of the 16 International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes that were long term in nature. 

“We (Sri Lanka) have a track record where we have not achieved this kind of target. So, if it is business as usual, then we should expect results to also be ‘usual’, which means we could even miss this IMF target and then the expected projections will not be achieved and Sri Lanka will be back in difficulty five years from now, asking the world again for assistance,” 

said Dr. De Mel, delivering the keynote address at the CEOs Breakfast Forum organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka), this week.

He stressed that only either the economy or vested interests can survive and cited the latter as the culprit for driving the economy to its current state. 

“You are among the most powerful in trying to change the course of Sri Lanka’s economy and you must know that both can’t survive and if vested interests are under control, then we can move away from business as usual and chart a better path for Sri Lanka’s economy,” he told the full house audience.

Joining Dr. Demel at the event was also Finance Ministry Fiscal Policy Department Director General Dr. Kapila Senanayake, John Keells Holdings Chairman and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Deputy Vice Chairman Krishan Balendra, EY Country Managing Partner Sri Lanka and the Maldives and CA Sri Lanka Immediate Past President Manil Jayesinghe, TW Corp (Pvt.) Ltd Chairman and CEO and former BOI Chairman Thilan Wijesinghe and First Capital PLC Head of Research Dimantha Matthew. 

Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Inland Revenue Commissioner General D.R.S. Hapuarachchi and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Viraj Dayaratne PC were among the special invitees that attended the forum.