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The key Ingredient in Hospitality

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Human Relations: CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhi
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca

Key Takeaway from Studies in France

I returned to Le Galadari Meridien Hotel in Colombo at the end of 1988 after company training in France and England. I was eager to share all that I had learned at the Institut International Meridien with my team in Sri Lanka. At the Institut, I had learned a lot about hotel finance, hospitality marketing, psychology and organizational behaviour.

There, influenced by the teaching of one of the French seminar facilitators, Alain Cardon, I increased my appreciation that human relations is the key ingredient for success in hospitality operations and management. Cardon inspired and challenged me at the same time. I was inspired to write books and do leadership coaching like he did, in time to come.

Alain had a unique, international background. He was born in Algeria, raised in Egypt, educated in the USA and France and had lived in Romania for some time. Very early in his career, these multinational experiences had served to train him to embrace diversity and to become a proficient, international, systematic team and organizational coach.

When I met Alain in Tours, France, in between his lectures to my group, he was writing chapters for his first book on leadership. Today, after publishing 28 books in English and French, Alain is a highly sought-after international, keynote speaker on systematic coaching. Alain taught us about human relations and his own concept of personality analysis. His personal style for executive coaching and team coaching was direct, confronting and empowering.

Alain categorized people into four main groups based on how they communicated, walked, talked and reacted to different situations. I told him that from my late teens I had been thinking a lot about different personalities and how to change the way I communicated with important people after quickly understanding their personalities. Alain liked to be challenged. When I disagreed with one aspect of his concept, he continued to debate with me after class till late evening, of course over a good bottle of Bordeaux wine.

Mastering Personality Analysis (PA)

When I was an 18-year-old student at Ceylon Hotel School (CHS), I was suspended for a month from school for cutting classes to go on a cross-country cycling adventure with nine others. As I wanted to keep this suspension a secret from my parents I found an unpaid job, but with free board and lodging at Barberyn Reef Hotel. That provided me with free time to think.

I thought about different people, their personalities and different ways to interact. Half the battle is won when an employee is able to analyse personalities quickly and adjust the way she/he communicates with each person (bosses, customers, peers, etc.).

During a CHS social trip in 1972, for the first time in my life, I realised how people, including our strict lecturers, behaved differently and more freely in more relaxing situations. I also learnt something new from my immediate supervisors in my first four, part-time jobs. Each of them had different personalities.

The West German Principal of CHS who suspended me, as well as my first boss, the Catering Manager of Hotel Samudra who fired me, were ‘no nonsense’ types. They liked to control others and boss around. I termed their personality type as “Toughie”.

My second boss, the Head Waiter of the Pegasus Reef Hotel, had a bubbly personality and loved dealing with all types of people. His personality was exactly the opposite of “Toughie”. I termed his personality type as “Softie”.

My third boss, the Butler at the famous Terrace of Mount Lavinia Hyatt Hotel, had another personality type in between “Toughie” and “Softie.” Owing to his attention to details and ‘prim and proper’ attitude, I identified him as another category – “Perfectie”.

Mr. Sudana Rodrigo, the owner of Barberyn Reef Hotel, and my fourth boss, ad a personality exactly opposite of “Perfectie”. He was a good man, but was a bit clumsy and often wore wrinkled clothing. He frequently got distracted and communicated with many messages at a time. Yet, he was practical, creative, funny and energetic. He was involved in many projects at a time and was not very punctual. In my mind I commenced identifying this personality type as “Confuzie”.

After serving a celebrity, who was my movie idol at Barberyn Reef Hotel, I realized that a smaller number of people did not fit into any of the four categories. Such people had a complicated personality. I termed that type of personality as “Complexie” – the fifth personality type of my evolving model.

None of these five personality categories were good or bad. My concept helped me to be flexible in the manner in which I communicated with these different personalities, particularly people who were important to me.

This is one lesson that helped me throughout my global career. As Alain’s concept was similar to my thinking in many ways, I was very happy. Moreover, I felt validated by an expert on human relations. For the first time, I decided to share and teach my concept, now modified with Alain’s philosophy.

PA in Action @ Le Galadari Meridien Hotel

Soon after returning from France, I spoke about my concept with the Training Manager of the hotel – Sunil Dissanayake (presently the Director/CEO of BMICH). Sunil was one of my batchmates from CHS and a good friend. “Chandi, I will organize a full-day workshop for middle managers with you as the presenter on ‘Personality Analysis’ (PA),” Sunil supported me. We agreed to do a pilot workshop for 26 managers and supervisors from my division. As the Director of Food and Beverage, I had 13 managers in my team managing different departments.

Soon after the commencement of this workshop, I realized the usefulness of the concept and how managers can improve departmental motivation, productivity, revenue, and service via PA. After a brief introduction, I got all participants to do a self-analysis and identify their personality type. After that I got the whole group to evaluate each other’s personality.

During the lunch break I was fascinated to note how people with similar personalities liked to be together and sit next to each other when we had lunch. I also realized that in departments where there were conflicts between the manager and supervisor, always it was because they belonged to opposite personality types. I wanted to experiment further.

I had six Maîtres D’hôtel (Restaurant Managers), each of them who managed one or two departments. Each of them had an assistant titled Supervisor or Senior Captain. As I believed in cross-training and to avoid having managers settle into comfort zones, I rotated them annually. Soon after the workshop, I shuffled Maître D’hôtel posts and coupled each with a supervisor with a similar personality. That action worked like a charm. During my last year at that hotel, my division had the smoothest operation without any conflicts in the food and beverage outlets. That lack of conflict, in turn, improved the customer service, customer satisfaction, revenue and departmental profits. I no longer had to spend any time on conflict resolutions in those six departments.

PA Seminars around the Globe

Soon after delivering my first-ever PA workshop as a pilot at the hotel, I received a call from the Training and Development Manager of Air Lanka Catering Services Limited. She said, “Chandi, I heard that you have developed an amazingly, effective seminar with a new concept. Can you present a few seminars for our senior managers and middle managers, who are from four different countries?” I agreed and delivered two seminars for them.

During the last 34 years, I have delivered around 100 PA seminars around the world on themes similar to ‘Personality Analysis: The Best Tool for Hospitality Managers’. This program has been the most popular among many of the teams of people I led as a hotelier and a dean, taught as a professor or coached as a leadership consultant. I have presented seminars on this concept in fifteen countries since 1989: Aruba, Botswana, Canada, England, Ghana, Guyana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, The Maldives, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and Zambia.

During the pandemic I delivered a few PA webinars to members of professional associations and a special lecture on Zoom to a group of master’s degree students at the University of Colombo, where I contribute as a visiting faculty member. The full video clip of this webinar is available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xED1WJWaiHQ

Over the years, I was always happy to share continuously, fine-tuned versions of personality types according to my categorizations identified 50 years ago – “Softie”, “Toughie”, “Perfectie”, “Confuzie” and “Complexie.” To me it is still relevant and useful, almost every day, when I deal with people in webinars, classrooms, boardrooms or even at Bridge tables when I direct my weekly games.

PA – Adjustments in Dealing with Bosses

A few months after I returned from France, I was saddened to hear that my mentor and boss — General Manager of the hotel — Jean-Pierre Kaspar, would be transferred soon. We commenced working in Colombo around the same time in 1986. Soon after he settled into his new job in Colombo, Mr. Kaspar became my mentor. We had similar personalities. Our offices on the mezzanine floor were next to each other. Often, in late afternoons, we had a casual chat over a cup of espresso and cookies in his office. I soon became his trusted wingman.

Mr. Kaspar had suggested that after I work as the Director of Food & Beverage of Le Galadari Meridien for three years, I would be ready for a transfer to a Le Meridien Hotel in the Far East or the Middle East for three years at the same level, but on an expatriate contract. That was identified as my route to eventually get promoted as an expatriate Le Meridien General Manager.

“I am asked to take over a challenging Le Meridien property in the Bahamas at short notice. They seem to have serious union challenges there, and I am required to leave Colombo as soon as possible. Don’t worry about your transfer to another country. I will mark it as top priority in my handover document to the new General Manager who has been transferred from Paris to Colombo,” Mr. Kaspar said.

When the new General Manager, Paul Finnegan arrived, everything changed. This Irish born Chartered Accountant had been the Financial Controller of a 1,000-bedroom Le Meridien in Paris. His management style was totally different. More importantly, his personality was exactly the opposite to Mr. Kaspar’s personality. My knowledge of PA became useful in immediately changing the way I communicated with my new boss. Mr. Finnegan, who was clearly a “Toughie” in contrast to Mr. Kaspar who was a “Softie.”

Three days after his arrival Mr. Finnegan was yet to talk with any of the divisional heads, who were all getting a bit anxious. I decided to take the bull by the horns. I went to his Personal Assistant and asked for an appointment. She slowly went into his office and explained my request. I heard him asking, “Who?” in a deep, gruff voice. The Personal Assistant came out and told me, “You have only five minutes.”

When I entered the General Manager’s office, it was totally different. Mr. Kaspar’s personality was evident in the way he had kept his office – a lot of light, plants, trophies, flowers and family photos. He had an open-door policy. Now the office was nearly dark, with one light over his desk, and no plants, flowers and photos. The windows were closed and a closed-door policy had taken effect.

I introduced myself and welcomed Mr. Finnegan to Sri Lanka and the hotel, but he was certainly not interested in small talk. He listened to me without any signs of interest and responded with one-word answers, twice. When I left his office within five minutes, I decided to totally change the way I communicated with the General Manager. Even my official memos to the new General Manager became as short as possible, getting to the point and the bottom line straight away. Mr. Finnegan liked that, and I got along well with him, unlike some other divisional heads.

On every weekday, the General Manager had a morning briefing with eight managers. It was held in the board room adjoining the General Manager’s office. As the board table had only eight chairs, I had arranged for a banquet chair to be kept permanently in the board room, to accommodate all nine attendees. During his second week in Colombo, Mr. Finnegan started holding morning briefings, with two small changes.

His meetings usually had one way communication. The other change he made, confirmed his personality type in my mind. He had ordered the removal of the banquet chair. When someone pointed out that we have nine attending, Mr. Finnegan said, “the last to arrive will attend the meeting standing!”

Training and Human Resource Development

In 1988, Le Meridien launched a chain-wide training and development initiative. They introduced three levels of recognition for employees who completed various types of in-house and external, training programs while earning Le Meridien training credits. The reward was a certificate and Le Meridien pin with a Logo in three colours indicating three levels of proficiency. These were called Logo White, Logo Blue and Logo Red (the highest level).

Sunil Dissanayake, who was an excellent Training Manager, championed this scheme in Colombo. I supported his efforts by motivating all 230 employees in my division to compete for Logo rewards. I wanted all managers in my division, to compete for higher Logo rewards. In leading others, one must lead from front while setting a good example. It was a great motivational tool to improve human relations with our internal customers. Thanks to my additional credits with Le Meridien training, I earned the Logo Red, and Sunil was very happy.

Relationship with SLAPS

I first heard about The Sri Lanka Association of Personal Secretaries (SLAPS) when I joined Le Galadari Meridien Hotel in mid-1986. A well-known Management Consultant, Mr. Eric B. M. de Silva had founded SLAPS in 1978, and every year it was getting bigger and more active. By 1988, SLAPS membership was getting close to 1,000. Later it was re-branded as The Sri Lanka Association of Administrative & Professional Secretaries (SLAAPS).

When the Executive Committee of SLAPS met me in 1986 to discuss a large-scale coffee morning event they were organizing at the hotel, I was very impressed with their commitment and efficiency. Knowing the influence secretaries had in their organizations when it came to business to five-star hotels in Colombo, I offered them several concessions for that event.

Soon I became an admirer and a friend of SLAPS. They made Le Galadari Meridien their main venue for meetings and events. Their President in 1988, Ms. Renuka Corea, liked some of my suggestions and we collaborated in organizing the ‘Secretary of the Year’ event and ‘Boss of the Year’ event. I helped them to create a new competition — SLAPS Queen, and a new event — SLAPS Nite, a large dinner dance held at Le Meridien in 1988.

SLAPS honoured me by inviting me to be the Chief Judge for Secretary of the Year Competition in 1989. In addition, they appointed me as the Vice Patron of SLAPS for three years. I keep in touch with a few of the Past-President of SLAPS from the late 1980, whom I consider my good friends. By mid-1989 when I decided to leave Sri Lanka to commence my global career, they pleasantly surprised me by organizing a farewell event and awarding me a special trophy.

I still have that trophy in my study. There are two, engraved messages on it. One says: “To Mr. Chandana Jayawardena – In honour of the deep appreciation and the unselfish services given to SLAPS while serving with outstanding leadership, vision and ability of upgrading the place of work – Le Meridien”.

Thank you, SLAPS!



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Features

The heart-friendly health minister

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Dr. Ramesh Pathirana

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.

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A LOVING TRIBUTE TO JESUIT FR. ALOYSIUS PIERIS ON HIS 90th BIRTHDAY

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Fr. Aloysius Pieris, SJ 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 on Nov. 23, 2019.

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.

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A fairy tale, success or debacle

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Ministers S. Iswaran and Malik Samarawickrama signing the joint statement to launch FTA negotiations. (Picture courtesy IPS)

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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