Science & Technology and National Development – Part II

Science and Technology in human civilization and industrial revolution

by Emeritus Professor Ranjith Senaratne
Former Chairman,
National Science Foundation

(First part of this article appeared in The Island of 29 Jan.)

The Central government of India provided a weighted tax deduction of 200% for any capital and revenue expenditure incurred on in-house R&D by a company, excluding expenditure on land and buildings. In addition, the Indian government has encouraged the corporate sector to re-strategise their CSR funding so that high-impact industrial research as well as research needed to bring about affordable and accessible solutions to the burning problems of the bottom of the population could be supported.

As the private sector R&D expenditure in Sri Lanka is relatively low, i.e. 18%, compared to that in developed countries and some countries in the region such as Thailand, there exists a great potential for growth in this area. Though the Sri Lankan government introduced a very attractive 300% tax rebate on R&D in 2016 aimed at encouraging more corporate research and innovation, only a very few firms availed themselves of this opportunity, thus its impact was far below the expected target. Inadequate awareness, the lack of a consistent national policy, and absence of a research culture in many private sector institutions may have contributed to it. However, the situation has now greatly changed and a much greater response could be expected if such a scheme were reintroduced. Moreover, as done in India, the CSR programmes of the private sector could be remodelled to support high-priority and high-impact research of industry and community. In addition, the government could, as some countries have done, introduce proactive initiatives, such as “Make in Sri Lanka”, “Start-up Sri Lanka” and “Smart Cities”. This would provide a huge impetus to the R&D sector.

Development a National Quality

Infrastructure (NQI)

Today we are living in a fiercely competitive modern world where the people have a quality conscious mindset. They demand the best, but they also should deliver the best as nobody wants to compromise on quality, whether it is of a product or service. Therefore, development of a NQI is of overarching importance for ensuring food safety and security, competitiveness, export promotion, capturing new markets, productivity improvement, innovation of new products, environmental protection as well as the health and safety of populations. Therefore, establishing an efficient and effective NQI is of paramount importance for economic growth and transforming Sri Lanka into a developed nation.

The NQI framework constitutes Metrology System, Standards, Technical Regulatory System, Conformity Assessment Service Infrastructure and Accreditation Services. Therefore, it involves a large number institutions such as Sri Lanka Standard Institute (SLSI), Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB), Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department (MUSSD), conformity assessment bodies (testing labs, calibration labs, inspection bodies, validation and verification bodies, certification bodies), regulatory bodies (Food Control Administration Unit of Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs Authority, Central Environment Authority, Customs etc.). They should identify their respective roles and functions and work together in a cohesive and coherent manner in order to create a Quality Culture in Sri Lanka. However, there is no proper coordination between these institutions and consequently, there are serious issues with regard to the quality of products and services in so far as they affect safety, food security and exports. There is, for example, the issue of the return of rejected consignments of exported goods at a huge cost to the country. Besides, heavy demurrage charges are often paid to shipping lines due to various delays involved, including the long turnaround time for the certification process for some imported products stemming from inadequacies of the NQI. These come within the realm of S&T and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency through policy interventions in order to promote exports and access new markets meeting the stringent compliance requirements laid down by importing counties. This is of crucial importance to lift the country out of the economic crisis and place it on an upward trajectory for development.

Leveraging assets of national

S&T institutions

 The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the premier national institution mandated to promote S&T for national development. In line with the needs and challenges of the Digital Age, the NSF has developed very useful databases, namely Science and Technology Management Information System (STMIS), Global Digital Platform (GDP) and National Instrument Database (NID). Over 6,000 R&D personnel in a wide range of disciplines in academia, R&D institutions and public and private sector institutions have registered with the STMIS. It provides the profiles, fields of interests and expertise, and contact details of those registered with the database.

 In addition, there are nearly three million Sri Lankan expatriates and emigrants in the world, including an appreciable number of reputed scientists, professionals and entrepreneurs holding senior positions in academia, R&D institutions and industry. They undoubtedly constitute a formidable potential asset of Sri Lanka which has hitherto been almost untapped for national development. In fact, there are many Sri Lankan expatriates who are keen to contribute to the development of the motherland. However, the lack of a credible and pragmatic mechanism has hindered such contribution, while countries such as China, India and Taiwan have derived remarkable benefits by harnessing expatriates for national development. Therefore, the NSF constructed a digital platform in February, 2022 with the support of the SLASSCOM to harness this huge potential to advance higher education, international collaboration, R&D, technology transfer and industrial growth. Over 900 overseas Sri Lankan scientists, technologists and professionals from around the world have registered with the GDP including top-flight scientists and technologists of global repute such as Dr. Bandula Wijay, Prof. Sivalingam Sivanandan, Prof. Nimal Gamage and Prof. Tissa Illangasekera from USA, Prof. Dilantha Fernando from Canada, Prof. Ravi de Silva, Prof. I.M. Dharmadasa and Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga from the UK, Prof. Prema-Chandra Athukorala and Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi from Australia and Prof. Monty Cassim from Japan, to name only a few.

 Another underutilized asset for promoting R&D is the huge instrument base of the country, which is scattered among many institutions, but on which technical information is not available on a national digital platform. Sri Lanka has over 20 state-owned higher education institutions, a comparable number of R&D institutions, and several public sector institutions which collectively possess an immense instrument base including high-end analytical, research and testing instruments, most of which have been purchased using public funds. Most of these instruments are meant to be used on a 24×7 basis, as is done in many parts of the world. However, due to compartmentalisation and fragmentation of institutions, the lack of a sharing culture, and the absence of an institutional policy and mechanism for providing analytical and testing services to external institutions and persons, many expensive and advanced items of equipment and instruments purchased operate far below their capacity. Therefore, the NSF developed a state-of-the-art National Instrument Database (NID) of instruments in September, 2022 (https://nid.nsf.gov.lk/). Besides ensuring rationalization and avoiding unnecessary duplication of high-end equipment, this will provide a user-friendly, cost-effective, analytical and testing service and research support for academia, R&D institutions and industry, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly those which lack the requisite laboratory facilities and technical competencies.

The NID would also help to develop accredited laboratories in Sri Lanka for the major imports and exports in order to ensure that they comply with the stipulated requirements ensuring food security and safety and non-rejection of export consignments. Presently over 1,500 instruments are included in the database, but this represents only a very small fraction of the total instrument base in the country. Therefore, state intervention is required to make it mandatory to register all high-end instruments in all the public sector institutions in the NID so that it will be a comprehensive database which could afford a turbo boost to R&D, industrial growth, FDI, international partnerships and export promotion. More information in this regard in given in the link https://www.ft.lk/columns/NSF-launches-National-Instrument-Database-promoting-S-T-industrial-growth-and-exports-in-Sri-Lanka/4-739854

However, it is regrettable that the above three valuable national assets, namely STMIS, GDP and NID which can potentially afford a big boost to R&D and national development, are still hardly used or supported by the relevant authorities, and remain badly underutilized. There may be similar assets in other institutions which remain unrecognized and un/underutilized. In addition to those mentioned above, the NSF is in the process of developing a database of technologists and technicians, including those retired, along with their technical capabilities and expertise, which will enhance the effectiveness of the NID in ensuring the minimum downtime of instruments. This will provide a reliable and dependable service to the stakeholders. Action is also underway at the NSF to establish a national digital library consortium to provide cost-effective, user-friendly and round-the-clock access to journal databases that is crucially important to enhance R&D. Therefore, the necessary support and facilitation of the relevant authorities are required to make them a reality without delay.

Science Diplomacy

Today we are living in a hyper-connected, multipolar world where no country can be independent of or insulated from what is happening elsewhere. Despite phenomenal advances and remarkable accomplishments in S&T, the world is becoming increasingly more chaotic and insecure by the day and it has to come to grips with a myriad of formidable challenges and threats such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, pandemics, natural hazards, high-tech terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrime, air pollution and marine pollution. Those are complex, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional challenges and tackling them demands an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, multi-sectoral and transnational systems approach with cooperation between specialists with diverse backgrounds across territorial boundaries. For, practically every major issue, whether global, regional or national in scale, features S&T either as a factor in understanding the underlying cause of the issue or in contributing to its remedy.

Besides, S&T constitutes the mainstay of bilateral and multilateral agreements and is at the heart of development assistance. Therefore, as in Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of S&T in Sri Lanka should have close cooperation as S&T plays a pivotal role in dealing with global issues including pandemics, cybercrimes, climate change, air and marine pollution, and use of marine resources and air space and conflicts with neighbouring countries. Need for such cooperation is further augmented as Sri Lanka is strategically located in the Indian Ocean which has outstanding geo-political and geo-economic interests.

Sri Lanka possesses a territorial sea of 21,500 km2 and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastal line with an extent of 517,000 km2. Sri Lanka has the rights to the resources in the water column, seabed and subsurface in the EEZ. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Sri Lanka is entitled to claim for an extended area of seabed where the thickness of the sediment layer exceeds one km. This claim has been made and, if accepted, Sri Lanka could gain an additional seabed area. Therefore, the EEZ is likely to expand further with the delimitation of the outer edge of the continental margin of the country, which would permit Sri Lanka to own an EEZ equivalent to 23 times (approximately 1,400,000 km2) its land mass. Apart from living resources, this Zone contains a variety of exploitable precious minerals and hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas). The Indian Ocean has already become a cynosure in world politics and the USA, China and India are already viewing it through their own geo-strategic lenses Therefore, the future prosperity, sovereignty and security of our nation depends on how effectively, efficiently and diplomatically we manage and exploit those valuable marine resources and maritime potential. Given the great potential significance of Science Diplomacy in such a context, it is imperative to include Science Diplomacy as a key element in the S&T policy framework.

Conclusion

Developing a policy is only the first step and in order for policies to contribute to the successful delivery of their intended benefits, they must be effectively implemented. There are obviously many challenges as well as opportunities for implementation referred to as “implementation barriers” and “implementation facilitators”, respectively. The barriers can be rooted in a variety of causes, including opposition from key stakeholders, inadequate human or financial resources, lack of clarity on operational guidelines or roles and responsibilities for implementation, conflicts with other existing policies, lack of coordination and collaboration between parties responsible for implementation, or lack of motivation or political commitment.

Our country has formulated a plethora of policies in the past related to various sectors of the economy such as agriculture, tourism, education, science and technology, fisheries and environment to name, but a few. More often than not, they have been developed by the ruling party in power or the party to be elected without wider consultation and engagement of the key stakeholders. A policy so developed practically becomes a party policy and not a truly national policy. Consequently, a policy developed through such an approach will naturally encounter formidable barriers in the process of implementation, resulting in poor impact. Unfortunately this has been the rule rather than the exception to date. It is hoped that with much hyped and needed system change, future national policies will be developed in a transparent manner, and without any party political bias, after due consultation and deliberation, and with the participation of all the key stakeholders. This will help them to develop a sense of ownership of such policies, which will in turn make the implementation of the policies easier, more efficient and hassle-free, thereby ensuring the envisaged benefits, outcomes and impacts, and paving the way for economic growth and national development.