Decades of civil war, a massive left wing uprising in
the 1980s, and now the tsunami -- the Sri Lankan economy
couldn't have asked for more trouble.
Even though the $18 billion economy began
to shift away from a socialist orientation in 1977, the
pace of economic diversification and liberalisation has
been extremely slow compared to other developing nations.
What ails Serendib's economy?
It is perhaps this that the reader would
have wanted to know in a nutshell from the introductory
chapter of Economic Policies in Sri Lanka: Issues and
Debates by Dr Saman Kalegama. But more than the economy,
it talks about the economist Gamani Corea. And the introduction
is a plain repetition of Corea's career graph at the end
of the book!
Even in regard to Dr Corea, the emphasis
is on his role in UN organisations and not in Sri Lanka!
Minus this flaw, the book is a ready
reckoner for all those interested in Sri Lanka's economic
policies.
The book brings together contributions
by 23 economists and social scientists, who discuss the
evolution of Sri Lanka's economic policies over the years,
the ideology governing the evolution, the debates on policy,
and key economic issues in contemporary Sri Lanka.
Edited by Saman Kelegama, Executive Director,
Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo, the book stands
as a good reference material for other developing countries
as well. For instance, most of the developing nations
blame the public sector units for spoiling the economic
broth!
Author JB Kelegama in his article, The
Importance of the Public Sector in Economic Development,
aptly reasons out why the PSU is a white elephant.
"...It is true that several state-owned
corporations are running at a loss; this is not because
of state ownership but bad management, for all state-owned
firms in East Asia operate at a profit. The fact is that
we have politicised public corporations by appointing
all officers from the chairman to the labourer for political
loyalty than for competence…when they (PSUs) are
making loss we call them inefficient and call for privatisation.
Virtually all public corporations can be run efficiently
if they are allowed to operate as commercial enterprises
freed from political interference".
The writer makes a good comparison between
the public sector in developed and East Asian countries
and what developing nations can learn from them.
However, the book should have had a chapter
on Sri Lanka vis-à-vis other developing economies
like India and Pakistan. That will have clearly brought
out the economic problem in Sri Lanka and where all it
needs improvement.
For instance, in the article, Lessons
in National Planning, author Godfrey Gunatillake has made
a good attempt by comparing the situation in Sri Lanka
and India on national planning at the time of independence.
"…From this ambiguity regarding
planning that we find among the political leaders at the
time of independence, it is clear that the issue of national
planning itself would be subordinated to the more critical
political issue of the choice of political and economic
systems. On this count, the situation in Sri Lanka was
very different from that of India at the time of independence.
In India, the commitment to planning and a mixed economy
with a socialist bias was unequivocal. Even so, there
were some important elements in the discourse regarding
development that took place in Sri Lanka on the eve of
independence that provided an ideological framework and
long-term direction."
As for the language of the book, it is
reader-friendly. It is a well researched and a finely
organised piece of work. Even a lay reader can pick-and-choose
his subjects of interest.
And every time he is stuck, he doesn't
have to run a Google search. The book saves that effort
too!
Meenakshi Iyer
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