Features
BEACH BOYS, GROUP TOURS & LOBSTERS – Part 26
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
Some Challenges on the Beach
As the Executive Chef of the Coral Gardens Hotel, I laid a strong foundation for my work in the new environment by learning about the union, the history of the hotel and the work culture of the kitchen. I changed my management style slightly to suit the team of 50 mature employees in my 
departments. I experienced positive outcomes with the team due to that adjustment. I also enjoyed positive reactions from the customers about the ‘new-look’ products and services. These were encouraging signs, but my optimism was short lived when we experienced a series of hostile encounters on the beach in front of the hotel.
It commenced when a security guard tried to chase away some beach vendors who harassed the hotel guests sun bathing on the beach. The beach vendors had been selling corals. Later when one of the hotel gardeners asked a local fisherman not to keep his fishing boat right in front of the hotel, I heard a loud argument. “Your rich hotel does not own the public beach! My family used this spot on the beach to keep our fishing boat for generations! If you touch my boat, you will not be allowed to come out of the hotel, alive!” the fisherman yelled. The Manager of the hotel, Muna requested the staff to avoid any further confrontations with the locals.
I considered such disagreements as an indication of deeply hostile attitudes of the locals toward the hotels. One day, a well-known local deep-sea diver, drew a pistol and shot the bullseye of the dart board hung in the public bar. I then felt that the situation with the locals was like a time bomb. There were also objections from the locals about the hotel using the public beach for weekly barbecue buffets. Reluctantly, I had to back off and re-locate the barbecue near the beach but, within the boundaries of the hotel. I was disappointed, but learning from this challenge, decided to do some research about the culture of the locals living in the town of Hikkaduwa and nearby villages. Muna and I consulted the local businessmen – Lesley and Dudley, whom we befriended before we took over the management of the Coral Gardens Hotel.
Two Worlds Separated by a Wall
Having spent the first two decades of my life in Colombo, I had to make an effort to learn the culture of Hikkaduwa area. It was small, but a vibrant town in many aspects. It was important for me to understand the attitudes and aspirations, behaviour patterns and belief systems, customs and cultures (ABC) of the local residents. In general, the area was poor and the economy was largely dependent on the co-operative fishing industry owned and operated by small-time local businessmen.
I realised that compared to the locals who were making a living from agriculture, fishermen communities were more aggressive in their nature. Some younger members of the local population attempted to make a living by selling local handicrafts, corals and other items to tourists. They also rented diving equipment to the tourists. The hoteliers called them “beach boys” or “touts”. In the mid-1970s, unlike Bentota, Hikkaduwa attracted many low-budget travellers and hippies, who were served well by these local beach boys, and smaller guest houses.
Showing some respect to the locals, being flexible and having an open dialogue appeared to be wise decisions by Muna. However, I felt that being firm and fair would be an even better approach in dealing with hostile locals as well as the union. I noticed that some people took kindness for a weakness. Muna was not keen on walking outside the hotel. However, on some evenings after dinner service, I used to walk to nearby hotels to meet friends and play cards. I used to walk back to Coral Gardens Hotel during early hours of the morning. During my walks I usually spoke briefly with local vendors and touts. That provided me some understanding of their attitude and mentality.
A string of small tourist hotels mushroomed in Hikkaduwa following the success of Coral Gardens Hotel which set the standards for others to follow. The key common element of these hotels were the names, which all had the word – ‘Coral’ (Blue Corals, Coral Reef, Coral Sands, Coral Rock, Super Corals etc.). These hotels were predominantly owned by rich business people from Colombo. In general, the poor villagers viewed hotels as rich establishments providing luxury products and services to tourists while making lots of profit, without providing any direct or indirect benefits to the locals. A couple of these hotels hired retired army officers to manage hotels. They were considered tough administrators, who maintained connections with the top brass of the army.
Coral Gardens Hotel provided security to its guests with tall walls and gated entrances controlled by uniformed security guards (mainly ex-military men) provided by an agency from Colombo. In general, villagers were not allowed in the hotel. The only exception was the public bar, which had a separate entrance from the car park. As management, our key responsibility was to provide services to our guests in a safe environment. In later years, during my work as a hotelier in other parts of Sri Lanka as well as in other developing countries such as Iraq, Guyana and Jamaica, I always felt that the wider the economic gap between the luxury hotels and the local communities and economy, the higher the tensions were.
The Most Experienced Sommelier
In addition to the union leader Edmond, there were two other Butlers at the hotel. They supervised the restaurant employees during breakfast, lunch and dinner service. The oldest of them, Butler Raman, had gained over 25 years of experience as a Wine Waiter and Sommelier at the famous Galle Face Hotel, prior to joining Coral Gardens Hotel, 10 years earlier. He was reputed in Sri Lanka as the person who had opened the greatest number of bottles of wine during his long career. I learnt from his knowledge of wines.
Butler Raman was a cheerful man. He was loyal to the hotel and respected the management, unlike some of his peers. He was happy when I commenced a restaurant employee briefing prior to each lunch and dinner service. He loved my detailed explanations about the preparations of dishes and how the dishes had been named, particularly the new items I introduced to the menus. He took notes during all my briefings. We developed a mutual respect for each other. Raman was very open to my new and creative ideas. He respectfully addressed me, ‘Master’ and I addressed him, ‘Butler Raman’.
Raman’s customer relations were excellent. He had a good memory and addressed repeat customers by name. All tourists who returned every year or sometimes a couple of times in each tourist season, all knew Raman by name. He quickly became my right-hand man in the restaurant. Often both of us stayed by the entrance to the hotel reception area to greet tourist groups arriving at the hotel.
Categorising Lunch Groups
When the hotel was full, we had only around 100 resident guests for lunch and dinner. On most days, we catered for an additional 150 to 200 tourists who visited Coral Gardens Hotel only for lunch. These ‘lunch only groups’ were on one-week long tours of the island. Coral Gardens Hotel was their first stop and they arrived towards late morning or around noon. After they did the glass-bottom boat excursions to see the underwater Coral Gardens and a quick dip in the sea, they used the large changing rooms with showers and lockers. Then they came to the restaurant for a quick lunch. Speed of service was very important as the European tour leaders in charge of these groups had to manage the time efficiently.
In consultation with the tour leaders, I planned standard three-course lunch menus that can be prepared and served quickly. These menus changed slightly depending on the fresh catch of the day from the sea. Obviously, the restaurant staff provided better service to high spending tour groups who tipped generously. After the welcome, Raman quickly categorised the tour groups into the following four:
a) Wine Party – a group that ordered wine and tipped well. The best tables were allocated.
b) Beer Party – a group that ordered only beer and tipped a little.
c) Soda Party – a group that ordered only soft drinks and pop and hardly ever tipped.
d) Choo Party – a group that did not order any beverages or tipped, but stopped to use the washrooms only.
Selling Lobsters
A month after the tourist season in 1975/1976 commenced, I wanted to introduce a lobster night similar to that Bentota Beach Hotel offered weekly. As most guests were on full-board packages, we charged extra to include a lobster dish on their dinner menu or upgrade the main course with lobster. I planned the additional lobster dishes and briefed Raman and motivated him to take lobster orders and sell wines to match the dishes. I gave him a free hand and he commenced lobster order taking for our first lobster night. The next day, when I checked how many lobsters that Raman had sold, I was disappointed to note that he managed to sell only six.
“That’s OK, Raman. I know that you tried your best”, I told Raman, as he was also disappointed to let me down. “Sorry, Master. As those guests who were satisfied with the lobster dishes you cooked this evening and talked with other guests, I think that we should be able to sell more, next week” Raman told me. I understood that word of mouth is a good form of sales, but I was eager to have some quick results. We agreed that next week, I should join Raman to sell lobsters, as a team of two. “Next week, shall we take lobster orders soon after breakfast?”, Raman asked me. “No, let’s sell when the tourists are hungry, say just before lunch, around noon” I decided on the timing strategy.
The next day just before 12 noon, on my way to meet Raman at the restaurant, I dropped in at the stores. The divers from Ambalangoda were delivering freshly caught live lobster to the stores. “Sukumaran, give me that king lobster”, I told the storekeeper. Carrying that large lobster, I accompanied Raman and went near the beach where most of our guests were sun bathing. As someone in a chef uniform including a white hat carrying a lobster was uncommon, I attracted some attention of the guests immediately. A few guests surrounded me and one guest asked me, “Is that lobster live?” “Henny, you may touch one of its eyes”, I gently prompted. The lobster moved in an aggressive manner when Henny did so. She screamed and all the guests on the beach came to check the commotion.
I knew at once that we had created some interest and now, I had a interested audience. I wanted to strike quickly to take lobster orders for dinner. Raman carried two empty Coca Cola crates from the resident bar, and told me, “Master, stand on these crates so that everybody can see you and the king lobster.” I did the sales talk and Raman wrote down the room numbers and orders. It was perfect team work. When I explained how I prepare our favourite lobster dishes I noticed some guests looking hungrier and clearly indicating their desire to order the most expensive item on our à la cart menu. When I mentioned the price, that became an obstacle for closing the sale. Some guests said that was too expensive for them. I quickly thought of a few problem-solving deals.
Later, privately I told a couple, “Mary and George, I know that these dishes are expensive, but do you want to return to France without tasting a single lobster dish in Sri Lanka?” As they were still not convinced, I then said, “I have a solution for you. I will serve one lobster dish for both of you to share, but served on two large plates, filled with some extra assortment of salads. Two plates for the price of one!” “That sounds great, count us in”, Mary said, even without noticing her husband’s nod of approval. With that confirmation Raman and I reached a record-breaking 50 lobster orders for that evening. We had to buy a few extra lobsters from neighbourhood hotels to meet the demand.
Our lobster nights proved to be popular and successful for the rest of the tourist season. Over the months, we enhanced the promotional tactics. This included taking the lobster orders the previous evening just before dinner. We set up a large sea water tank in the lobby with live lobsters and a colourful poster. At times I did some ‘free’ lobster tasting sessions. I also arranged for the Receptionists at the front office to talk about our lobster promotion to every new guest at the time of their arrival. Due to 10% service charge on bills, which were equally distributed to all full-time employees, I was able get the support of the employees working in different front of the house departments (waiters, barmen, receptionists, cashiers, room boys), for lobster promotion.
AIDA
A few years later, when I had my first course in Marketing at the University of Colombo, some of the best Sales and Marketing experts from Lever Brothers (who were guest lecturers) introduced a concept called AIDA to the business administration students. In explaining this concept, my first Marketing Lecturer and then Chairman of Lever Brothers Sri Lanka, Mr. Stanley Jayawardena told my class that AIDA is the best way to describe the customer journey throughout an effective sales process. Without any formal education in Marketing or sales training, in 1975, at Coral Gardens Hotel I had followed exactly the four stages of the AIDA concept:
Attention
– attract the customer’s attention – timing, location and the chef uniform.
Interest
– generate interest in the product or services – commotion with the live king lobster.
Desire
– transition from interest to actively ‘wanting’ the product – dish explanation.
Action
– spark / convince the customers to take action / close the sale – 50 lobster orders.
Since then, I have been a firm believer of AIDA. Not only in selling, but also in advertising campaigns I designed, seminars I presented and keynote speeches I delivered. I used AIDA for them all.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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