Features
Colombo Hilton, Cornel Perera and developing East coast tourism
Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography
As mentioned earlier there was a lull in inbound tourist traffic after the riots of 1983. Till then we were doubling the number of arrivals each year. Old companies like John Keells, Aitken Spence, Walkers and Sommervilles, which had been edged out of plantation management by land reform, entered the field of-tourism with staff and skills which compared well with their counterparts in the travel trade worldwide.
I remember the close ties that were established between them and major foreign outbound travel companies. In the Ministry and Tourist Board we adopted a private sector friendly approach which encouraged the local companies to aggressively market Sri Lanka. We knew we had the President’s backing in this approach.
There was one instance where Hurulle the Minister of Culture had arbitrarily raised the price of tickets for foreign visitors to cultural sites like Sigiriya. In the travel trade ticket prices once announced in their catalogs cannot be arbitrarily changed. The tourist pays upfront when he signs up for a package tour based on the catalog rates. Our travel representatives rushed up to me to protest as their principals were furious.
As a strategy I requested Ken Balendra and his group to get their principals to write to the President protesting at this last minute change. For convenience I provided them a draft of the letter to be sent to the President. Balendra and his associates had immediately sent this to the relevant companies in Europe. The following day JRJ sent for me.
As I went into his office he was chuckling. “Amunugama, this is very strange”, he told me “people from all Europe-Paris, London and Zurich-are apparently telepathic. They have sent me the same message word for word, protesting against Hurulle’s decision. How do you account for it?” I realized that he had seen through our ruse and quickly admitted that I had originated it in our Ministry. He laughed and picked up the phone and ordered Hurulle to rescind his order. “You can do it from the next budget after giving due notice”, he told the minister.
He had seen the need to intervene very clearly and was not at all critical of our unorthodox behavior. He was too experienced and wily an operator not to see through our strategy. He always preferred action to lethargy in his officials and was ready to join in the fun.
The genesis of the Colombo Hilton also is an example of his unorthodox style. He was a great friend of Cornel Perera partly because he liked his chutzpah and partly because Cornel was his conduit to Thondaman. Cornel was my classmate from Trinity College and he used to exchange pleasantries with me about our friends and college whenever we met. He was from Gampola and was a fluent Tamil speaker with links to Thondaman and his Ceylon Indian Congress.
He had got a scholarship to Japan to study fisheries. With his flair for languages Cornel picked up Japanese easily and was in demand by our embassy in Tokyo which at that time did not have much to do since our trade relations had not developed. Indeed our early businessmen with Japan – Cornel, Munidasa, Warnasuriya and Merrick Gunaratne, started out there as adult students with a flair for languages.
Some like Munidasa and Warnasuriya married Japanese girls. Cornel managed to secure the local agency for Hitachi power sets. At this time big Japanese Companies were struggling to enter global markets and were willing to give competitive bids as well as large commissions to their agents who had to battle the well established western companies. With hard work and his natural charm, Cornel secured the contract for power sets from the CGR and entered the inner circle of the super-rich in the country.
He remained faithful to JRJ and promoted his image in Japan resurrecting his contribution at the San Francisco Conference. Typically our Foreign Service missed this opportunity and JRJ was beholden to his young friends who were assiduously drawing attention to his links with then Japanese leaders like Sigeru Yoshida. Japanese politicians have long memories and it was not difficult to fan the dying embers of the JRJ cult in Japan.
One of the top companies in Japan – a part of the Daibatsu or economy leaders – was Mitsui – a construction Company, which won many contracts like the construction of the new Parliament in Kotte. The Mitsui agent in Colombo was JRJ’s daughter-in-law which did no harm in the competition for project contracts. Cornel was close to Mitsui at this stage and proposed the joint construction of a new five star hotel in Colombo.
Mitsui which was already well established in Colombo agreed and Cornel brought in Hilton to undertake the management as a big name was needed at this juncture. This proposal was a big deal at that time since our tourism was in the doldrums after the communal conflagration and something dramatic and big had to be done about it. We in the Ministry supported this project to the hilt because new five-star hotels were badly needed if we were to encourage high end tourism.
The UDA and the Colombo Municipality, then under Sirisena Cooray, also backed the Hilton project and the construction got under way. The UDA under Premadasa had prepared a comprehensive development plan for the city of Colombo and the suburbs. Accordingly, the area around the Presidents House was demarcated as the financial district. Banks, stock brokering houses and other financial institutions were to come up there.
Today the Bank of Ceylon headquarters building dominates that landscape. Next to it was the upmarket leisure sector, principally hotels and malls. One block in this area was set apart for the Hilton project and the adjoining block was given, at Hameed’s urging, to the Galadari brothers. They were able to finance the construction of another new five-star hotel. Initially the Galadaris went with the, prestigious Meridian group of France but later decided to run the Hotel themselves with local management.
The future seemed bright for Cornel with JRJ, Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake, Mayor Cooray and Paskaralingam as his supporters. Premadasa provided him with land in Colpetty to set up the first supermarket in Colombo. At about this time, as I have written earlier, Lalith Athulathmudali as Minister of Trade led a delegation to Tokyo to promote trade between the two countries and setup the first Japan-Lanka Trade Council.
As outlined there, I as Secretary for Tourism, was a member of that 10-strong delegation. Meetings with the top Japanese ‘Daibatsu’ were cordial and the Hilton was presented as a successful collaboration. The hotel which was built to Japanese specifications was opened ceremonially by the President.
While it certainly added to the facilities necessary to boost tourism and soon became a hotel in great demand, changes in the political scenario brought misfortune to Cornel. In the Premadasa-Gamini conflict and the subsequent impeachment proceedings Cornel was caught in the crossfire between the two sides. Premadasa as President believed that Cornel had aided his bitter rival and no amount of pleading by Cooray and Paskaralingam would change his mind. He turned ferociously on Cornel by taking back the land for the supermarket and denying his shares in Hotel Developers, the holding Company for the Hilton.
Since then successive Governments which managed the Hilton have been unable to untangle the legal issues regarding ownership. Another project that should have boosted our tourism in a big way has been languishing. It is the Hyatt project which too was taken over by the Government but is yet to be opened. It was negotiated by Lalith Kotelawala who if left alone without political victimization would have opened this Hotel several years ago.
The tourist industry which was promoted by us as a private sector led venture has been stifled by Government interference and corruption and is today performing well below its potential. The tragedy is that Indian tourism which looked to us to provide a model of growth has far outstripped us. When the Indian travel Agents came to Colombo for their annual meeting we had more tourist arrivals than the whole of India. Today we are way down in the scale while India has become one of the largest tourist destinations of the world.
Trincomalee and Pasikudah
Under JRJ and Ananda we undertook to develop the East coast of the island which is ideally suited for ‘sun, sand and sea’ tourism. Due to our geographical location and the changes of monsoons Sri Lanka is suited for round the year tourism. When the monsoon strikes the south west of the island our east coast becomes a dry and breezy playground for the visitor. When the monsoon shifts to the north east the southern coastline is open to vacation tourism.
This beneficial climatic condition is envied by many countries which can only host short spells of tourism due to the vagaries of the weather. Our east coast also had the advantage that land by the sea was available at a relatively low cost. On the President’s instructions I surveyed the coastline to mark out the lands suitable for tourism and leave out other lands by the sea which were used by the fishermen of the same area as well as seasonal visiting fishermen from the south who set up ‘Wadiyas’ or camps in the fishing season.
Since there was plenty of land available I could accommodate the fishermen as well as the hoteliers. The MPs of the area were pleased about this demarcation because it had been a source of constant friction in their electorates. Sampanthan, the TULF leader complimented me in Parliament and the favourable sentiments of the House are enshrined in the Hansard. This was much earlier in time than July 1983, when we could amicably settle problems on the ground, with goodwill.
Unfortunately, there was an inexperienced GA in Trinco at that time, who tended to sabotage efforts at reconciliation. Many of the SLAS officers who held the position of GA tended to puff themselves up as Sinhala nationalists, at the expense of fair administration. However there were others like the veterans Tissa Devendra and Eric de Silva who repaired the damage ad won the admiration of all communities.
In the Kalkudah and Pasikudah areas Muslims predominated but at that time they were camp followers of the UNP. Devanayagam, a Colombo educated, westernized lawyer was a UNP Cabinet Minister who oversaw the Eastern Province. But Tamil militancy spreading fast in the North soon began to spread to the East. The TULF leaders strategized to include the east as part of the ‘homelands’ of the Tamil speaking people thereby roping in, willy-nilly, the Muslims who formed about half the population of the Eastern province.
As part of this strategy they co opted a Tamil leader from Batticoloa district, Rajadurai, to be the titular President of the TULF. Rajadurai was later won over by Premadasa but by then the Tamil militants had marginalized the TULF. Instead, Prabhakaran had promoted an eastern Tamil, Vinayagamoorthy alias Karuna who came from a Tamil family from Valachchenai. He became the feared LTTE commander who with his troops came to the rescue of Prabhakaran when he was encircled by the Army.
Karuna’s eastern troops were vital to the LTTE since they time and again came to reinforce the diminishing northern rebel forces. When Karuna defected the LTTE was badly damaged and their end was in sight. Karuna became a formidable foe of Prabhakaran and our armed forces were lucky that they did not have to be outflanked by Tamil fighters from the east.
After Karuna joined the SLFP we became friends and when I was assigned to oversee the party organization in the Kalkudah area I visited his home which was run by his sister who was the SLFP organizer there. She and her numerous young Tamil girls were good Sinhala speakers and were great advocates of national unity.
With the signing of the Indo-Lanka accord in 1987 Muslim supporters of the UNP were left high and dry. Led by their UNP icon Dr. Kaleel, they appealed to JRJ to safeguard their rights and privileges. Merging of the North and East would have made them a minority in their own land. JRJ who was beleaguered at that time was concentrating on arriving at a settlement with India as he did not want an Indian invasion as in the case of Bangladesh.
RAW had already drawn up plans for a takeover of the North. The only drawback for them was that unlike Indira, his mother, Rajiv was hesitant to authorize an invasion. Later I will describe the events that took place in Bangalore behind the scenes of the SAARC meeting there when JRJ met Rajiv face to face to settle their differences.
Prabhkaran was brought to Bangalore by Indian Air Force plane to agree to a settlement without the merger of eastern and Northern Provinces. He refused and earned the wrath of Rajiv who then became his adversary leading Prabhakaran to plot his assassination. This background did not appear even in the assassination inquiry and has now been buried under the sands of time.
With JRJ’s rebuff of Kaleel’s appeal the Muslims of the east began to organize themselves as a group with their own political party. They were surreptitiously helped by Hameed, the Foreign Minister who was seeking to play a larger role as a Muslim leader. I once heard him threatening President Wijetunga that unless he was put back as the Foreign Minister he would join the new Muslim Congress and contest from the Eastern Province.
Ashraff, an unknown lawyer, who was in advocate Faisz Mustapha’s chambers, was promoted to be the leader of a new party called Muslim Congress with another of Faisz Mustapha’s juniors, Rauff Hakeem, as deputy leader. Some of these maneuvers were captured by me in an article I wrote under the pseudonym of Rajasinghe following a visit to Belfast with Hakeem and Hisbullah who was a deputy Minister under the Chandrika regime, which owed its existence to Ashraff who provided her with a slim majority in Parliament.
(To be continued)
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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