Features
Inherent inadequacies
Excerpted from the autobiography of Merrill J. Fernando
One of the glaring weaknesses in both the above Boards (Tea Board, Tea Propaganda Board etc.) was the Board members were mainly ex-officio, representing the Chamber Commerce, CTTA, TRI, and the smallholders. None of these people possessed a coherent concept of the tea trade, be it in marketing, branding, or advertising. As a result, the administration of the Secretariat was able to do exactly as it pleased.
The only exception to this distressing generality was Victor Santiapillai, who was then the Director of the Export Development Board (EDB), having relinquished his position as Director, International Trade Centre, Geneva, at the invitation of Dr. Sivali Ratwatte, then Chairman of the EDB, in order to serve the EDB for a three-year period. Santiapillai understood and supported many of the reforms I proposed, but implementation was stifled by the bureaucrats of the SLTB (Sri Lanka Tea Board).
When the Sri Lanka Tea Board Act was prepared, I was requested by the then Minister of Plantations, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, and his Ministry Secretary, Doric de Souza, to go through the draft of the Act, in discussion with Dr. Jayantha Kelegama, Director of Commerce, and to submit my views. The Minister instructed Dr. Kelegama to incorporate in the Act any proposal I submitted, which he considered worthwhile, without, of course, attributing them to me.
I first met Dr. Kelegama at the Ceylinco Akase Kade and over three meetings thereafter, provided him with many issues to consider. One of my proposals was that ex-officio appointments to such boards, nominated by the Chamber mostly, should not be permitted and that the Minister should have the sole authority, to appoint people with the requisite experience and knowledge. Though this suggestion was accepted and incorporated in the constitution of the SLTB, the Government fell soon afterwards, and the proposals were not implemented.
The Director General of the Tea Board at that time was Dr. R. L. de Silva, from the Tea Research Institute, undoubtedly a competent tea scientist but on account of his ignorance of the important aspects of the international tea trade, a misfit as DG of the Tea Board. The key members of his team, such as Lalith Agalawatte and Sambasivam, were not impressive either.
Conspiracies within
Lalith Agalawatte was, initially, an Assistant Commissioner at the London Tea Centre on Regent Street. Notwithstanding his modest title, I got the clear impression that he wielded a great deal of influence, not only in the centre but at the Tea Board Colombo office as well. He seemed to be well in with TGA Advertising, the France-based agency working for the Ceylon Tea Centre in London, for promotional activities of the Tea Board in Europe.
The ‘The 1868’ project was proposed by the London Tea Centre, to develop a Pure Ceylon Tea bag in France. I participated in this project by supplying the finished product, but with no financial involvement in the project itself. The owners of TGA were introduced to me and on a subsequent visit to Sri Lanka, I advised them on an appropriate blend and, through Printcare, developed high quality packaging for the product. I also advised Agalawatte, in good faith, that this project would eventually fail as a promotional initiative for Ceylon Tea, as, if the brand were to succeed, it would become one more foreign label to compete against genuine Ceylon Tea brands.
Shortly thereafter, a TGA representative arrived in Sri Lanka without my knowledge. I was not surprised when I discovered that Agalawatte, who had by then been transferred to Sri Lanka and appointed to the position of Assistant Director of the CTPB, had invited the TGA representative to Sri Lanka to meet another exporter, who would supply the tea cheaper! We did not receive any more orders. The project was eventually abandoned after 30 tonnes of tea had been exported, with the London Centre spending around Sterling Pounds 150,000 in promotional expenses.
Another instance of this individual’s duplicity was when he obtained my support to pack a brand of tea for a Sri Lanka businessman operating in Japan, whose substantive business interests lay elsewhere. The tea was shipped to Australia. At the same time, I participated in a TV tea commercial at a Commonwealth event in Melbourne, in which, prior to the event, I was made to understand that Dilmah tea was to be featured. When the event got going I discovered that Agalawatte had engineered for the brand supported by him, to be featured at the launch, instead of Dilmah.
Prior to this incident he manipulated to withhold a sum of USD 119,00 approved by the Tea Board as its contribution to the advertising and promotional costs of Dilmah, in Australia. Despite verbal assurances given to me by Agalawatte, that the funding disbursement request had been presented to the Chairman for approval, when I contacted Oliver Fernando, then Chairman of the Tea Board, I found that the request had not been submitted to him.
Ironically, this man, who for some time had been currying favour with the then Minister of Plantations, Major Montague Jayawickrema, was able to persuade the Minister to appoint him as the Head of the newly-opened Ceylon Tea Centre in New York. When the proposal to open the centre came up for discussion, I opposed it vehemently, but in the vote that the Minister called from the chair, mine was the only dissenting voice. The proposal was approved and I was so distressed that I refused to speak to the Minister for the next three months.
Agalawatte spent two years in New York, incurring huge expenditure to no purpose, and when there was a call to investigate his activities, the Secretariat sent Agalawatte’s equally-wily colleague, Sambasivam, as the investigator. He returned with the verdict that Agalawatte was doing a fine job and that he was in the process of negotiating a contract with McDonalds for the supply of tea. I cautioned the Board, that it must be a blatant lie as McDonalds would not entertain offshore suppliers for the US. Predictably, that contract never saw the light of day and, soon afterwards, Agalawatte obtained his Green Card and disappeared in the US!
Costly white elephants
In one instance, I proposed that the Ceylon Tea Centres around the world (UK -London and Manchester – Denmark, Italy and so on) be closed down, as they served no useful purpose. As Tony Peries has observed pithily in his writing, the “… UK centre did minimal service to the cause of Ceylon Tea but was better known as a good lunchtime curry house…” (a very accurate evaluation of the contribution that the UK centre made, to the furtherance of the cause of Ceylon Tea!).
My proposal was accepted and the decision was made to close down these centres. However, one year later, when the renewal of the leases on the centre in Japan came up for review, the Board was compelled to renew it on the grounds that there had been a delay in conveying the decision to close down! That centre in particular had been spectacularly unsuccessful in the promotion of Ceylon Tea, with Japanese consumption of coffee increasing in the previous decade by about 400%, whilst tea consumption remained static.
Our overseas Tea Centres had been established during a period when the UK, Australia, and New Zealand consumption of tea was almost 100% Ceylon Tea. Therefore, those centres performed a largely public relations function in a market basically saturated with Ceylon Tea, in which promotion was not a requirement. Ironically, despite the presence of the Tea Centres in those countries, Ceylon Tea gradually lost almost total market share!
The Head of the Ceylon Tea Centre in Regent Street, London was Ernest Jesudasan, a British national, with minimal links to Ceylon; a nice, well-meaning gentleman with, in my view, little practical knowledge of tea or tea marketing, despite having served earlier as Director of the CTPB. The Head of the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board then was Clarence Cooray, who, owing to the lack of Ceylonese with sound overseas tea marketing knowledge, was entirely dependent on British tea interests in Ceylon for advice on the promotion of the cause of Ceylon Tea!
An expert committee
The Sri Lanka Tea Board had more teeth than the CTPB, but it was equally impotent in the promotion of Sri Lankan interests via trademarks. However, after intense lobbying by the trade, the Sri Lankan Government of the day was made aware of the need for establishing Sri Lankan-owned brands and, in August 1980, appointed an Advisory Committee on the promotion and marketing of Ceylon Tea.
The remit of the Advisory Committee, appointed under the guidance of the then Minister, Major Jayawickrema, was, briefly, “to review and report on the existing strategies for marketing of Ceylon Tea and to recommend a comprehensive package of proposals to ensure the effective development of Ceylon Tea in the international market”.
This group comprised I. O. K. G. Fernando (Chairman, SLTB), C. Chanmugam (Deputy Secretary, Treasury), W. L. P. de Mel (Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Shipping), G. Cumaranatunga (Add. Sec., Ministry of Trade and Shipping), the writer (then Managing Director, M.J.F. Exports), V. Santiapillai (Chairman, EDB), and Dr. R. L. de Silva (Director-General, SLTB). The committee co-opted S. Nanayakkara (Director, Commerce), S. Kulatunga (Director-General, EDB), T. Sambasivam (Dep. Director, SLTB), and L. Agalawatte (Actg. Director, SLTB).
At that time the Tea Promotion Bureau, the division of the SLTB responsible for promotion, operated offices in London, Cairo, Dubai, Sydney, Tokyo, Auckland, and Johannesburg. In addition, some of these centres also operated restaurants or catering services, as ancillaries to the promotional work. The committee recommendation was that these catering services should be phased out, subject to the terms of the respective leases.
The committee also made wide-ranging recommendations in regard to State promotional support for Ceylon Tea in the world market (subject to minimum quality standards and conformity of the product), with highest priority given to tea packed and bagged in Sri Lanka and, secondly, to Pure Ceylon Tea packed overseas in Joint Venture operations.
The proposals also covered issues of generic promotion, government incentives for processing and export marketing of value-added tea, fixing of export duties for tea bags and packets, duty rebates on imported packaging materials, concessionary export duties for packeted tea within specified weight ranges, rebates for tea bag exporters to encourage that aspect of the trade, maintenance of minimum quality standards of product, and the use of symbols for promotional work. The use of the Lion logo was discussed exhaustively.
Futile exercises, the Lion logo controversy
One of the most contentious issues before the tea trade then was the use of the Lion logo. The Secretariat was relentless in its efforts to mandate the use of the Lion logo on all tea packets intended for export, on the premise that the Lion symbol identified Ceylon, the origin, only. I completely opposed this notion, instead taking up the position, that the Lion symbol should represent only good quality Ceylon Tea, and not be symbolic of any and every tea originating from Ceylon, irrespective of quality.
Here too, as (Tony) Peries has observed in his writing, “…the major packers were in the excellent position of benefiting from tea (not Ceylon) advertising, at no cost to themselves…, through our promotion under the ‘Lion’ logo”.
Theoretically, the launching of the ‘Lion’ logo was a masterful marketing strategy. It would have been the eloquent voice of the cause of quality Pure Ceylon Tea, had the pack bearing the logo consisted of the genuine product. However, the reality of the marketplace was quite different.
There was absolutely no reliable method to determine the proportion of genuine Ceylon Tea in a pack carrying the Lion logo. It could be either as high as 90%, or as low as 10%. Therefore, irrespective of the Ceylon Tea content, Lion logo packs prospered from the identification with Ceylon Tea. At one point, there were as many as 355 brands carrying the Lion logo, though Ceylon Tea imports to the UK had dwindled rapidly.
Whilst the diminishing UK imports of Ceylon Tea over the years reflected the ineffectiveness of the Lion logo campaign, absolutely no action had been taken to change the strategy, nor was there any indication, that this serious market erosion was receiving any attention from the SLTPB. Had the Lion logo been leveraged judiciously to promote the interests of Pure Ceylon Tea, the British market would probably still represent the highest consumption of Ceylon Tea in the world, as it did in the days of Thomas Lipton!
Though it had been developed and sustained at considerable expense, the Lion logo was not associated with a genuine quality standard. As a result of a combination of unfavourable and conflicting factors, the development and promotional strategy purported to be the saviour of Ceylon Tea, eventually became its nemesis, because of the indiscriminate use of the logo. The committee recommendation was that. gradually, the Lion logo should be phased out.
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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