Ex-envoy asks govt. to reduce number of SL foreign missions

Sri Lanka’s former High Commissioner in New Delhi and founder of the Pathfinder Foundation, Milinda Moragoda, has called for a reduction in the number of Sri Lanka overseas missions. The one-time minister said that technology had created a much more globally connected world and transformed the ways in which international diplomacy could be conducted.

In light of this, and as part of Sri Lanka’s urgent need to modernise its governance structure, create efficiencies, and optimise limited resources, he is urging the Government to seriously consider drastically reducing the number of its diplomatic missions abroad. At present, Sri Lanka has over 60, most of which are understaffed and under-resourced. In contrast, Singapore, with foreign exchange reserves of close to USD 325 billion, has around 50.

 Moragoda has observed that if a zero-based budgeting approach were taken, where the existence of every mission has to be justified, Sri Lanka could easily reduce at least 10 of its overseas missions, and that part of this savings could be used to bolster the activities of the remaining embassies and consulates.

He said the need for each diplomatic representation and embassy should be assessed dispassionately, taking into consideration functionality, affordability, and national interest.

The government should then focus on empowering selected missions that could overlook activities at a regional level and allocating extra resources to these, he added. He suggested that, as is the case with Singapore, some ambassadors could be based at the foreign ministry with periodic visits to their countries of accreditation in keeping with a prearranged activity plan.

Moragoda is of the view that the ongoing budgetary crisis has provided a good opportunity to think afresh and rationalise and re-evaluate institutions and policies founded under different historical and societal circumstances and that any system has to evolve and adapt to changing times.