SRU chief highlights private sector’s crucial role in safeguarding reform process

As reform and restructuring efforts are underway across various sectors of the economy, the private sector stands out as a key element crucial to safeguarding the entire reform process, stated the chief of the State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit (SRU).
According to SRU Director General Suresh Shah, this applies not only to the reforms of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but 
also to the reforms in general. 

“If, for instance, the private sector plays that role, then I think these efforts will be sustainable,” he said, speaking at a panel discussion at Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2023, yesterday.
The panel themed ‘SOE Reforms – Now or Never’ focused on the ongoing reform process and the potential impact on economic growth.  
While acknowledging that civil society institutions should also assume this role, Shah emphasised the need for a ‘defence mechanism’ to safeguard the entire 
reform process
“Be it for SOE reforms or other economic reforms, we need this. Then I think, as a country, we stand a chance. If you don’t build that defence mechanism, then you know, we’ll be back to where we were,” he said. 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the first review mission for the IMF-supported programme in September acknowledged that the authorities are making good progress in the SOE reform process.  

It pointed out that the introduction of adjustments to the fuel and electricity prices, aimed at preventing the SOEs from accumulating additional losses and the Cabinet’s approval of a comprehensive strategy to address the cross-holdings of debt across various SOEs, are steps in the right direction.