Opinion
Sri Lanka’s development dilemmas
by Uditha Devapriya
On May 18, the grace period for a USD 78 million coupon payment expired in Sri Lanka. For the first time in its post-independence history, the island nation defaulted on its foreign debt. The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe, then announced that it would take six months for it to start repaying its creditors. An agreement with the IMF is in the pipeline now, but such an agreement will take another month or two.From a global perspective, of course, there is nothing unique about Sri Lanka’s crisis. For the country’s 22 million plus population, however, its scale has been unprecedented. While horror stories of Sri Lanka turning into another Lebanon or Zimbabwe have been recycled relentlessly in the press, since 2020, in recent months such comparisons have been made more frequently. Inflation, which began peaking last year, hit 30 percent in April and 40 percent in May. While nowhere near Lebanon or Zimbabwe, estimates by certain observers and analysts put Sri Lanka at the top of global inflation indices.All this has given rise to certain perceptions about the country’s problems. Western and Indian media, in particular, ascribe the crisis to the convulsions of domestic politics. Very few commentators have noted that these problems have been decades in the making, that the government’s ineptitude is more a symptom than a cause, and that external factors have had a say in such issues. The President’s bungling has contributed to these problems, to be sure, but that only shows how complex they are in the first place.
Neoliberal prescriptions
Just how complex, though? To answer that, it is necessary to address the structural causes that neoliberal economists and commentators note as having led to the crisis. These groups underline four factors: the government’s indulgence of unorthodox economic theories, its drive towards organic agriculture, its refusal to go to the IMF, and its insistence on diverting foreign reserves to defending the currency and repaying bondholders.It must be noted that all these problems are linked to the structural weaknesses of the economy. While there is a consensus on those weaknesses, though, economists and political analysts are divided over what, or who, is to blame for them.
Sri Lanka’s economy has been paraded, even by some radical commentators, as “export-dependent.” Yet it has been running trade deficits for the last 50 years. Its exports include primary commodities like tea, textiles, and tourism. It also earns remittances from migrant workers, many of whom effectively subsidise West Asian economies.These sectors took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. While tourism was on its way up in February, most arrivals were from countries like Russia and Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine thus, effectively, dealt a blow to hopes of a long-term revival.
Neoliberal economists, especially those linked to Colombo’s well-funded and well-oiled think-tanks, attribute the country’s problems to excessive money printing and government spending. They see the country’s public sector as bloated, politicised.To an extent, the latter view is correct. Sri Lanka’s bureaucracy has long been a preferred destination for unemployed graduates and the politically connected. While Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power implying he would end such a culture, he reversed course two years later and hired 65,000 graduates to the state sector. Ironically enough, it is their peers who are occupying the frontlines of anti-government protests today.
The heterodox view: Industrialisation and local production
Heterodox economists see things differently. According to them, Sri Lanka’s problems have had to do with its failure to industrialise and shift to manufacture.One of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s first decisions, after coming to power in 2019, was to appoint Dr W. D. Lakshman, a proponent of industrialisation, as the Governor of the Central Bank. Economic analyst Shiran Illanperuma describes Dr Lakshman’s appointment as having been “poorly received by comprador capitalists and economists.” Lakshman earned the wrath of this crowd heavily after he began enacting policies aimed, ostensibly, at stimulating growth, including a series of tax cuts which have now been reversed.
Another of the country’s biggest advocates of industrialisation is Dr Howard Nicholas. A Senior Lecturer in Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Dr Nicholas helped set up the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a think-tank that advocated industrialisation, in the late 1980s.In its first few years, the IPS promoted alternative development strategies. Its advocacy of these strategies was received positively by then president, Ranasinghe Premadasa; based on its recommendations, he spearheaded an ambitious Garment Factory Programme which provided jobs to the rural sector while stimulating growth. This was around the same time Vietnam embarked on export-led industrialisation via its apparel sector.
According to Dr Nicholas, Sri Lanka’s prospects were bright in the 1990s. It even had the potential to surpass Vietnam. Yet with the assassination of Premadasa and the election in 1994 of a regime that modelled itself on Clintonian Third Way Centrist lines, industrialisation was abandoned in favour of outright privatisation and deregulation.The new strategy filled the government coffers – for a while. But with the escalation of the civil war and, paradoxically, the elevation of the country to middle-income status in the 2000s, Sri Lanka found it hard to access traditional aid programmes. It was at that juncture that it started moving into international bond markets.
While Western media and think-tanks propagate Chinese debt trap narratives, it has been Sri Lanka’s reliance on bond markets, which constitute a greater proportion of its external debt than does China, that finally brought its economy to its knees.To be sure, over the years several groups have highlighted these concerns. Yet, they differ as to the strategies and tactics needed to chart a way out of the crisis.
Neoliberal commentators argue that the private sector should take the lead. But Sri Lanka’s private sector is dominated by rentiers. Moreover, the country’s exports are limited to commodities and tourism, along with sectors such as IT. These themselves are dependent heavily on imported raw materials and intermediate capital goods.According to Harvard University’s Atlas of Economic Complexity, Sri Lanka’s largest exports are in “moderate and low complexity products”, like textiles. This contrasts with Vietnam, where textiles are more highly complex. Sri Lanka is also seeing “a static pattern of export growth.” In other words, while in 1990 it could boast of much potential in garments, by the early 2000s the sector’s prospects had considerably reduced.
To resolve the economic crisis, heterodox economists and analysts thus contend that the government must oversee a radical, socialist strategy, centring on import-substitution and local production: a dreary, dismal prospect for Colombo’s neoliberal coterie.
Leaderless protests and lack of alternatives
Sadly, the protests themselves seem little concerned by these imperatives. As has been pointed out by Rathindra Kuruwita in The Diplomat, they remain leaderless and rudderless. This has exposed them considerably to the risk of manipulation.Thus, while the protesters have called for Rajapaksa’s resignation and coupled it with demands for the resignation of all parliamentarians, they have also claimed that the latter demand, which delegitimises the country’s legislature and empowers the Executive, was incorporated into the protests by government supporters. Moreover, many of them fault the government for not going to the IMF earlier, failing to realise that the IMF’s track record in the Global South, during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been questionable.
More seriously, none of the protesters seem aware of what led to the crisis in the first place. To quote Dr Asoka Bandarage of the California Institute of Integral Studies, they “have not been able to put forward an alternative leadership or a viable road map for the future” and seem “unaware of the global dynamics” of the crisis.
Gotagogama, the site of the protests at Galle Face Green, has played host to several radical activists and artists, many of them linked to Marxist, anarchist, and other anti-government parties and alliances. Yet even these groups have failed to call attention to the wider issues. Those that have, like workers’ collectives and leftist commentators, have been marginalised by neoliberal discourses and populist demands for resignations.
The failures of governance and the road ahead
On the other hand, unfortunate as it has been for advocates of alternative development, the government has failed to appreciate the importance of their recommendations. A combination of corruption, ineptitude, and an eagerness to capitulate has thus put alternative development, and industrialisation, on the backburner.Milco is a case in point. Sri Lanka’s state-owned milk manufacturer, Milco recorded profits after a while last year. Yet a year or so after this milestone in the island’s public sector, the government replaced its chairman rather inexplicably. Such actions, multiplied many times over, have only distanced capable individuals from the State.
At one level, all this fits in with South Asia’s legacy of dynastic politics. From India to Bangladesh, the subcontinent is hardly a stranger to family rule. The Rajapaksas are no exception there: despite the recent spurt in anti-government protests, members of the family continue to hold important positions in the country.However, at another level, the Rajapaksa family has gone well beyond the regional model. As the country’s leading political analyst Dr Dayan Jayatilleka has observed, “this is not the Asian phenomenon of familial succession in politics, which is serial and sequential. The contemporary Sri Lankan phenomenon and process is both sequential and simultaneous, vertical and horizontal.” In other words, while family rule in the rest of Asia has served to sustain the political system, in Sri Lanka it has led to its very dismantlement. This includes the Rajapaksas’ deployment of the military, and allegations of militarisation in the north and east of the country: regions which bore the brunt of a 30-year civil war.
Nevertheless, despite all this, it goes without saying that what protesters consider as the government’s failures have been symptoms, rather than causes, of the structural faults underpinning the economy. The government must share the blame for this: in particular, its tendency to surround itself with yes-men and henchmen.Yet beyond this narrative, there is a far more compelling problem: a failure to resolve pressing issues like the island’s dependence on imports and sovereign debt. That in itself is linked to the sprawling global debt crisis, which has extended to other countries. While not all protesters are oblivious to these priorities, many of them are yet to address them fully. So long as debates over the crisis remain dominated by narratives of corruption and political personalities, such problems will go unnoticed and unresolved.
(The writer is an international relations analyst, researcher, and columnist based in Sri Lanka who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com. A shorter version of this article appeared in Global South Development Magazine.)
A blueprint for economic revival
by Dammike Kobbekaduwe, FIPM(SL), CIPM-SL, MBA(HR
As Sri Lanka navigates a difficult economic crisis, the tourism industry stands as a beacon of hope for a quick turnaround. This article outlines the significance of digital photography as a tool to boost the country’s tourism, focusing on the innovative CPT 2023 project, which envisions training 1,000 digital photographers to enhance Sri Lanka’s presence on Google Maps. By leveraging affordable digital cameras linked to cloud technology and promoting historical connections with international historians, Sri Lanka can not only attract more upmarket tourists but also revitalize its economy. Photography holds the power to address global issues, and with strategic investments, it could reshape Sri Lanka’s financial future.
Objectives and Goals
To explore the role of digital photography in reviving Sri Lanka’s tourism.
To highlight the CPT 2023 project’s vision and its expected impact.
To propose innovations in digital photography, such as cloud-linked cameras, to minimise post-production time.
To identify untapped areas of tourism that Sri Lanka can explore.
To connect Sri Lanka’s rich history with global narratives to attract a broader tourist demographic.
Detailed Explanation
Invention of Photography
The world’s first camera, the “camera obscura,” was refined into a practical device for capturing images by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the early 19th century. His work, alongside that of Louis Daguerre, led to the creation of the first permanent photograph in 1826. Over the years, the demand for photography grew as people wanted to preserve memories, document events, and share their lives visually. This demand transformed photography into a lucrative business.
Photography’s Business Growth
The evolution of photography as a business stemmed from several factors, including the desire for personal documentation, mass media’s increasing reliance on visual content, and the expansion of social media platforms that thrive on imagery. Photography addresses the global citizen’s need to express identity, capture history, and share cultures.
Impact on Global Challenges
Photography has also become a key tool in addressing global problems. It raises awareness on critical issues such as climate change, social injustice, and cultural preservation. Through visual storytelling, photographers document global challenges, bringing them to the forefront and motivating action. Sri Lanka, with its rich cultural and natural heritage, can harness this power to showcase its beauty and attract international tourism.
Global Definitions and Classifications
Videography: The art or process of making films or videos, often involving various stages from pre-production to post-production.
Digital Photography: The process of capturing images through electronic sensors that save them as digital files, which can be easily shared or edited.
Digital photography is classified into several types, including:
Portrait Photography, Landscape Photography, Architectural Photography, Wildlife Photography, Macro Photography,
Untapped Tourism Opportunities in Sri Lanka
While Sri Lanka already attracts a fair share of tourists, there are significant untapped areas that could be explored further, including:
Eco-Tourism: Promoting the country’s biodiversity and environmental richness.
Cultural and Historical Tourism: Uncovering lesser-known historical sites beyond popular locations.
Adventure Tourism: Developing hiking trails, safaris, and outdoor sports for adventure enthusiasts.
Heritage Tourism: Collaborating with global historians to reveal ancient ties between Sri Lanka and other countries.
CPT 2023 Project: Vision for the Future
The CPT 2023 project, launched jointly by www.vivonta.lk and Athula Jayasundera during his tenure as President of the UPSSL, has a unique approach to expanding tourism through digital photography. The project aims to train 1,000 photographers across 2,218 GN divisions in Sri Lanka’s Central Province. These photographers are tasked with capturing and uploading 50 creative images each to Google Maps, creating a total of 50,000 photos showcasing the hidden beauty of Sri Lanka. This digital catalog could increase the visibility of less explored tourist attractions, potentially boosting upmarket tourism by 50%.
The Role of Digital Photography in Bridging Tourism Gaps
Photography can bridge tourism gaps by providing prospective visitors with stunning, high-quality visuals of lesser-known locations. With advanced, affordable digital cameras linked to cloud applications, the time between capturing and uploading photographs can be minimised. This technology could be marketed as a low-cost alternative to sophisticated modern cameras, allowing a wider audience to engage in digital photography.
The rise of cloud-based storage solutions ensures that photographers can instantly upload and store photos, reducing post-production time and increasing efficiency. This innovation can revolutionise the way Sri Lanka promotes its tourist sites, ensuring that tourists from all over the world have access to fresh, high-quality images of the country’s attractions.
The Way Forward
To further strengthen Sri Lanka’s tourism and photography industries, several strategies can be implemented:
Development of Digital Cameras with Cloud Integration: Affordable, Wi-Fi-enabled cameras can minimise the time spent on editing and uploading images, making the process efficient and timely.
Collaboration with Global
Historians: By inviting historians from over 200 countries to study and explore Sri Lanka’s rich 2,500-year-old history, the country could attract intellectual tourists interested in historical connections and cultural heritage.
Expansion of CPT Projects Nationwide: By replicating the CPT 2023 project across other provinces, Sri Lanka could vastly increase its online presence, making the country more visible to global tourists.
Training and Upskilling
Photographers: Providing comprehensive training programs to budding photographers would ensure a consistent stream of high-quality visual content for marketing purposes.
Conclusion
In an era where visual storytelling drives global tourism, digital photography offers Sri Lanka an effective and scalable tool to enhance its appeal to international visitors. Through strategic projects like CPT 2023 and technological innovations in affordable digital cameras, the country can bridge the gap between untapped tourism opportunities and market demand. A more visible and diverse photographic representation of Sri Lanka’s unique heritage could help steer the country towards economic recovery.
We respectfully request Prof. H.D. Karunarathne, Vice Chancellor | Senior Professor (Chair) Department of Business Economics, Faculty of Management & Finance of the University of Colombo, to lead the initiative in advancing photographic research and establishing a national body of professional photographers. This effort would serve as a national contribution to promoting Sri Lankan tourism through the lens, with a unique approach. Furthermore, we envision this initiative becoming a global case study in demonstrating how digital photography can unite the world through its powerful impact.
References
Niépce, J.N. (1826). First permanent photograph. Retrieved from [historical source].
Google Maps. (2023). CPT 2023 project initiative. Retrieved from www.vivonta.lk.
Daguerre, L. (1839). Invention of the Daguerreotype. Retrieved from [historical source].
UPSSL. (2023). Photographic Society Developments.
BY N. A. de S. Amaratunga
According to some leading world economists like Jeffrey Sachs, the dollar is in trouble due to several reasons. The US is the largest taker of debts and it owes about 37 trillion dollars which is more than 100 % of its national income and Sachs says soon it will double if the country continues its present foreign policy particularly in Ukraine and the Middle East and also its monetary policy of printing money to maintain its status of affluence. Sachs says the rulers of US including those vying to come to power in the forthcoming elections are under the control of the weapons industry and the hawks in the defence establishment and thus are obliged to continue its policy on the ongoing global military conflicts. The number of central banks in the world that hold the dollar as their reserve currency for international transactions have reduced in number in the past few years which according to economists is a sign of the weakening of the dollar. The dollar is falling against world currencies like the yen and yuan, which again is evidence that there is some truth in the story that the dollar is in trouble.
Another factor that challenges the dominance of the dollar is the rapid development of BRICS organization in its attempt to find alternatives to the dollar as the currency for transactions among its member states which is also growing steadily with five more countries joining it and several others applying to join. BRICS is mainly concerned about the dominance of the dollar as the main global currency and the policy of the US to weaponise the dollar. The dollar is being used as a tool to further the hegemonic policies of the US which is possible as it has the ability to control the circulation of the dollar. For example, large sums of dollars that belong to its adversaries such as Russia, Iran held in banks are being seized by the US to punish these countries. US is proposing to use the interests accrued in the accounts that belong to Russia to fund the proxy war in Ukraine. Russia, which is a powerful country, may not take these indignities and economic warfare lightly and together with other BRICS countries will go all out to end the dominance of the dollar.
The total national income of BRICS countries in terms of purchasing power parity has gone past that of the G7 countries. These countries are now trying to develop a common currency for use among its members and to overcome the problem of banking they might resort to digital methods in their transactions. BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and the countries which have recently joined the organisation include Egypt, UAE, Iran and Ethiopia. Saudi Arabia attends its meetings and may join soon.
These developments are important for the Global South including Sri Lanka which apparently is interested in joining the organisation and possibly may pursue the matter at its next meeting scheduled for October this year. If a common currency or a basket of commodities for trade is developed Sri Lanka would be immensely benefited in its trade with India, China, Russia, Iran etc. Our country is struggling to find dollars to purchase its essential items. If transactions with these countries could be carried out on a barter system or an alternative currency independent of the dollar and importantly based on the purchasing power parity, which is not possible with the dollar dominated present system, Sri Lanka’s battle to earn dollars would be eased to a great extent. The discussions on the development of such a system it seems is high in their agenda at the forthcoming meeting. Dedollarisation of the economy of the member states which would enable these countries to independently do business among themselves would be given priority. For countries like Russia, China and Iran such a system would help to blunt the use of the dollar as a weapon and a tool of hegemony.
Moreover, the stated policy of Russia and China is non-interference in the internal affairs of less powerful countries. In contrast the US and Europe interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs to such an extent that they even dictate to us on constitution making. They could do so as we are dependent on them for survival. The US not only wants to be number one global power but also decide on how other countries run their affairs. It has dawned on the Global South that this type of total dominance cannot be tolerated any longer. The BRICS would want to help the Global South to disentangle itself from the present dollar dominated global economic system that seems to not only enslave but also leave them impoverished. The new government in Sri Lanka would do well to take cognizance of the rapid changes unfolding in the global economic arena, particularly the significance of the emerging BRICS and play its cards for maximum benefit to the country. As BRICS is apparently richer than G7 countries such a move would not be disadvantageous by any measure.
(Reference – Jeffrey Sachs Interviews – Oct. 2024)
Dr. Lal Samarakoon was born in Dehipe, Padiyapalella, Nuwara Eliya. He had his primary education at Gampola Zahira College and Ratnapura Ferguson College, and entered the University of Kelaniya from Matale Science College.
Obtaining a B Sc. degree in Physical Science with a first class, he qualified as a Surveyor from the National Survey Department and started serving the Mahaweli Development Program in Girandurukotte in 1986. Lal was awarded a Monbusho Scholarship, by the Government of Japan to obtain the Doctor of Philosophy degree in remote sensing from the university of Ehime.
He served Nippon Koei, a planning, design and construction company for several years. In 1998, Lal was appointed the Director of Geoinformatics Center of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He served in this position till 2018.
Dr. Lal Samarakoon has represented a generation that has seen the disaster risk management discipline transition from the sidelines of a welfare-oriented subject to a full-fledged discipline, which has emerged as a component of development discourse subsequently. He was a deep-thinking technocrat, innovative scientist, and dependable professional who firmly believed technology applications are needed to manage disasters and build climate resilience in Asia.
He observed the significant capacity gaps that exist in Asia in applying remote sensing and GIS tools in disaster risk management, and supported the countries in the Asia region to reduce these capacity gaps over the last 30 years. During his longstanding career at the Geoinformatics Center of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) he developed methodologies which provided better exposure for disaster management professionals in the region to use spatial information in Disaster Risk Management.
He successfully partnered with other international technical and academic institutes, including with the postgraduate Institute of Science in Sri Lanka, broadening the objectives and opportunities for cross-learning. His work was instrumental to prove that scientific advancement can be utilized successfully and cost-effectively to improve disaster risk management and climate adaptation practices.
His work as a scientist supported applying spatial data in several countries in the Asia region; the Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal for disaster risk reduction. Dr. Samarakoon will be remembered for his pioneering and outstanding contributions to Sri Lanka, and other countries in the Asia region with scientific innovation, training, education and policy support. His untiring efforts have helped create a pool of disaster risk management practitioners in mandated institutions, a much needed contribution for meeting the current day disaster and climate risk challenges.
May he attain nibbana,
N.M.I.S. Arambepola
Nirmala Fernando
Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu
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