Most Colombo Plan development goals achieved

Sarath Malalasekera

The Inauguration Ceremony of the Training Course on Entrepreneurship Development Using the Blue Ocean strategy, organised by the Colombo Plan Secretariat, in collaboration with the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technical Education in Manila, Philippines, was held recently.

Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amununugama was the Chief Guest.

Seventeen member countries including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam participated in this one-week training course.

Dr. Amunugama addressing the gathering highlighted four very important pre- requisites for the economic development of any country. They are - Energy efficiency and to be less dependent on importing oil in view of the sky-rocketing oil prices.

Infrastructure development, especially to balance the disparities between rural and urban areas.

Pro-active business friendly bureaucracy or public officials who can promote business in an efficient and productive manner and education and technology.

“This course is very timely and useful as many of the participants are policy makers who can advise on the right policies and investment promotion in their respective countries”, Dr. Amunugama added.

Dr. Amunugama also said that “Sri Lanka is not the only girl on the beach,” since every country is now competing for limited Foreign Investment in an increasingly competitive and difficult conditions.

It is important for a country not only to have high literacy, but also needs to have the right skills which are relevant to highly technologically advanced environment.

Although, Sri Lanka has a 99 per cent of literacy rate and has already met most of the Millennium Development Goals, in actual terms only 9 per cent are functionally literate.

Dr. Amunugama commended the Colombo Plan Secretariat for implementing a useful course like training entrepreneurship development in the Asia Pacific Region.

Sri Lanka being the host country, has also immensely benefited from the Colombo Plan since its inception in 1951, Dr. Amunugama said and added he hopes Colombo Plan will continue to play a significant role in the development of its member countries in the years to come.

The Colombo Plan Secretary-General Patricia Yoon-Moi CHIA in her welcome address said that, this is the first joint programme organised by the Colombo Plan Secretariat and the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC), Manila.

This is also the first of such programme which is implemented by the programme for Private Sector Development (PPSD) aimed at entrepreneurship development.

In addition this is also the first time the Colombo Plan PPSD is implementing such a programme in Colombo, Sri Lanka for our developing member countries.

Among those present were Malaysia High Commissioner Rosli Ismail, Myanmar Ambassador U Tin Oo Lwin, Thailand Ambassador Thinakorn Kanasuta, Bangladesh High Commission Third Secretary Akram Uddin Ahammad, Nepal Embassy Second Secretary Suresh Adhikari and Consul of the Consulate-general of the Philippines Terrance Perera.