Grow the economy, stupid!

Sri Lanka needs to get back to growing its economy. It needs a new push towards development, one that harnesses good ideas and creates wealth for all its citizens. The name of the game is wealth creation – for all. Then governments will have something to tax! But somehow, little Sri Lanka hasn’t quite grasped this idea, but is quite happy to sell off the family silver, i. e., high value engineering installations, to anyone with money. But this portrays the feebleness of the Sri Lankan leadership.

Older Sri Lankans hold up the fine example of Lee Kwan Yu and how he exploited Singapore’s geo-political advantages and brought the whole population out of poverty and into some kind of prosperity. Sri Lanka should do the same. and we are lucky, we have a very rich neighbour in India, who is quite willing and anxious to help us, or so it seems.

All around the world there are countries with money which are willing to trade with us. Saudi Arabia is the finest example of a marketeers’ paradise. Other countries are: South Africa, Brazil, China and not least, Russia. Sri Lanka needs to identify countries either with cash or in need of our products. I suggest Sri Lanka identify such countries having cash and to study how to service their needs.

Iran has produced their BAYRACTOR drones, and they are a great success in the war in Ukraine. These drones have many uses: data collection, identifying enemy positions and fortifications, giving out precise locations of enemy for tank targeting, and even to deliver a couple of kilos of High Explosive to where it is needed, on or off the battlfield! That is, they are adaptable and proven. They have been tried and tested on the battlefield and have come out with flying colours so to speak!

Countries like to know what their neighbours are up to and so Iran has a full order book. Therefore, the manufacture, testing and selling these drones is a huge success and a money-making enterprise for the Iranians! Is there any way we can help them with their production or innovative designs?

Sri Lankans need a similar manufacturing success, something that is useful that people are willing to buy. They say ‘build a better mousetrap and people will beat a pathway to your door.”

Sri Lanka used to have a barbed wire manufacturing plant. Can this manufacturing be revived and put to work? Perhaps barbed wire and other types can be exported all around the world. That presents a whole new world of boundless possibilities!

Russia supplies most of the metal palladium in the world. Palladium is a metal used for making exhaust pipes for environmentally clean cars. Germany’s Mercedes car manufacture is just one example from the whole car manufacturing industry in Europe!  With sanctions biting deep into Russia’s economy the export of this metal has been curtailed or even stopped entirely. Perhaps little Sri Lanka can persuade Russia to supply this metal which then could be used for exhaust pipe manufacture and export pipes for all those car manufacturers in the west.

To refresh: Sri Lanka needs to initiate manufacturing products that it can sell overseas and raise money to reduce its debts.

Russia, India and China are all developing large power generating stations – either run on Uranium or on Thorium. Uranium has been used to generate electricity for many years and there is a whole regulatory system in play which steers new projects in that direction, whereas Thorium, a safer, better, cheaper, less polluting way of generating power is side-lined.  But that is just plain wrong thinking.

Thorium is four times more abundant than Uranium; it cannot be used for making weapons. A Thorium powered generation plant has run successfully for 22,000 hours. Thorium is cleaner to mine; it eats actinides and creates isotopes which are valuable such as Bismuth 213. It has no pressure for a sudden release event = no explosions. The reactors are safe by design, with automatic shutdown nothing can melt. It uses or burns 99% of its Thorium fuel. There are zero greenhouse emissions, and no coolant water required. It is scaleable – it can be made large or in small units. It is claimed that the capital costs are the same as a coal fuelled power station, proportionately. There are useful commercial by-products apart from Bismuth 213. But because it is new territory – no one will take the risks – except perhaps Russia.

Two small Thorium driven plants could be installed on opposite sides of a town.

This would do away with the need for transmission cables and support towers. It would be a big saving in capital costs – but vested interests would oppose this innovation!

There is the unspoken threat of a repeat Carrington Event from the SUN which blasted the existing (at that time) electrics and electronics into combustion and ruination. And it is expected to happen again. The SUN is unpredictable and very dangerous for us. We should prepare for these events or expect to be blasted back to the stone age. Are you ready for that?

This reasoning lays the foundation for future Thorium development as a source of energy.

Russia is currently offering little Sri Lanka a small powerplant using Uranium for generating heat. But the consequences of reducing or elimination the import of dirty, polluting coal is not interesting to the Sri Lankan leadership.

A further example of innovation is the use of the metal – tungsten carbide. It is well known for use as tool bits in cutting and shaping softer metals in workshops. In the latest example of innovation it is being used as shell casing for smart weapons and shells because it can penetrate concrete easily and even be used to destroy tanks. Depleted uranium is used by the United States army for its tanks but has residual but dangerous radiation. The Russians do not go down that dirty, polluting path.

Can Sri Lankans find another use for extremely hard tungsten carbide?

Let inventive, Sri Lankan minds roam around looking for new applications.

Priyantha Hettige