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 the SRU Director General Suresh Shah, this applies not only to SOE reforms but 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 the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2023 on Wednesday.

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 ‘defense 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 defense mechanism, then you know, we’ll be back to where we were,”he stressed.

The IMF in the first review mission for the Fund-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 fuel and electricity prices,

aimed at preventing State-Owned Enterprises (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.