Foreign Minister urges biz community to take lead in ensuring policy consistency

7 February 2024 03:32 am

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry urged Sri Lanka’s business community to step up efforts in demanding and ensuring

Ali Sabry Pic by Nimalsri Edirisinghe

policy consistency in the country so that the economy can realise its full potential.
He asserted that the business community must stand up to any government in power and question when populist policies are rolled out.

“The business community must demand policy consistency. You must play the role, not the politicians. Going forward, we need to have some certainty in policies, that’s how we can actually achieve Sri Lanka’s true potential,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry said.

He shared these remarks addressing the COYLE Diplomats Evening 2024 organised by the Chamber Of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) in Colombo on Monday. 
The Minister acknowledged that ad-hoc policies across governments, particularly in big-ticket foreign funded projects  such as Chinese-funded Colombo Port City project and Japanese-funded Colombo light rail transit (LRT) project, have led to the deterioration of investor confidence.

 

However, he was quick to state that there are already signs of return in investor confidence among the international community due to the progress made by Sri Lanka in handling the debt and economic crisis.
Along with policy consistency, Sabry outlined that peace and stability as key ingredients for economic recovery. He stressed that businesses can also play an active role to prevent politicians exploiting societal division for their advantage. 
He pointed out that divided Europe, following the Second World War came together under European Union forming a  common economic union.

“If that is possible (for Europe), why not in our country? What is required now are consistency, stability and peace… Our diversity has to be a strength,” he added. Sabry highlighted that Sri Lanka has the ideal location to setup headquarters for most of large corporations in addition being a sourcing location.  In order to support this objective, he noted that Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the past four years has been focusing on transitioning into economic diplomacy. (NF)