Features
PARTY FUN @ SWANEE! – Part 39
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
Fun Begins…
During my first week as the Manager of Hotel Swanee in early 1979, I had a series of one-on-one meetings. These were with the departmental managers, senior supervisors, union leaders, West German and British tour leaders, most of the repeat and long stay guests. To get a better understanding of the hotel culture, I had these meetings in their own areas, departments and bedroom patios rather than in the formal atmosphere of my office. Within a week I had a good 360 degree understanding of the concerns and satisfaction levels of these key players.
I quickly learnt that to ensure customer satisfaction all we needed to do was to simply ask the customers and then do something about it. People were generally happy to make suggestions, and I wanted them to be a part of the solution, as well. We ended up with a series of focus group discussions which led to planning different and new forms of employee initiatives, special events for guests and hotel beautification initiatives. As I commenced being the manager of the hotel in the middle of a busy tourist season, we implemented popular good ideas, without any delay. Creativity becomes innovation when implemented by a team for mutual benefit.
I then held my first all employee meeting with nearly 100 persons. I presented concepts of new initiatives and invited managers and supervisors leading those initiatives to provide details. With that we created a participative style of operation and management at Hotel Swanee with input from relevant teams of employees. They were particularly pleased that the hostile village problems had been sorted out with diplomacy as the top priority. With a sigh of relief, there was a general consensus that the time for progress and fun had arrived.
Based on the involvement of guests in making good suggestions and in organizing new events, we commenced a competition selecting “The Hotel Swanee Guest/s of the Week”. The prize for the weekly winners was a special Lobster dish cooked and a Baked Alaska flambéed and served by the Hotel Manager. In addition, we displayed a poster at the entrance with an enlarged photograph and the name/s of the winner/s for each week. This became extremely popular. Most of these guests wanted me to sign the poster before they took it with them when returning to Europe.
Some of these guests sent me thank you notes and postcards with proudly including their title/s after their name/s (i.e., “Hotel Swanee Best Guests of the Week – 1st March, 1979”). When some of these Best Guests returned to Swanee as repeat visitors, we garlanded them on arrival and made a big fuss. They simply loved the attention.
Two such guests were female primary school teachers from the UK who regularly visited Sri Lanka and stayed at Hotel Swanee. A few years later, in 1981 when I was doing some promotional work for Walkers Tours in Hong Kong, I heard someone screaming at me from a higher floor of a large mall, “Hey Chandi, look who’s here – Hotel Swanee Best Guests from April, 1979!” They ran down to meet and hug me. After that, they insisted that they host me to dinner at their hotel in Kowloon. In the following years when my wife and I lived in the UK on two different periods in mid 1980s and early 1990s, they regularly met us at our home in London to sample my Sri Lankan cooking. Some of these friendships with former guests of Hotel Swanee lasted for decades.
Management by Walking Around
Gradually the management, supervisory, employee teams of Hotel Swanee, tour leaders and long stay guests worked like one big family. The focus was on customer satisfaction while having a lot of fun. I hardly spent any time in my office. While overseeing a small hotel with just 52 rooms, it was important for the managers to be versatile. I wanted them to get fully involved in the operations, be good listeners and work alongside the employee teams. Nothing was more motivating to employees than to have a senior team who managed by walking and working with them, instead of spending most of their time isolated.
Not all of the Hotel Swanee departmental managers were aligned with that philosophy. As a result, there were a few resignations. I quickly filled those vacancies with compatible managers who had worked with me in other hotels as well as from other sister hotels of John Keells Group. Quickly I surrounded myself with a perfect team, who loved to work and play.
The management team had all their meals together at the restaurant towards the end of each guest meal service. We dressed differently to match the main activities of the time of day. In the mornings we worked hard in safari uniforms, rather than wearing a shirt and tie. On Oriental buffet nights we dressed in national dress. As we managed without an executive chef, on some days, I worked in the kitchen wearing a chef uniform. Some evenings, I dressed in a bow tie and shirt to serve in the restaurant. When we introduced new events such as pool and beach parties, we dressed appropriately in swimsuits or sarongs and tee shirts looking like fishermen. Guests and employees too dressed differently to suit different events.
Pool Parties
We had a blast at our first pool party. We incorporated many ideas from the guests, tour leaders and employees, who decorated the pool area colourfully. Using a suggestion from the hotel storekeeper, Dayananda De Silva, we included a tight rope walking over the swimming pool competition to the program. The ropes were tied to two coconut trees from either side of the pool. We then arranged a couple of toddy tappers from the village to train the guests who were keen to take part in this “fun” competition. The toddy tappers were experts in tight rope walking from one coconut tree to another at great heights in order to do their job efficiently.
The next morning after the first pool party, some guests did not allow the gardeners to remove these tight ropes. “Chandi, we would like to practice for a week to get ready for the next week’s pool party” they said. We happily allowed that. They even checked their timing during practice sessions with a stopwatch borrowed from the hotel. We displayed the all-time record for this “Crossing the pool without getting wet” competition by the pool bar.
Other popular pool party activities were Tug-o-war over the pool (where the losing team ended up in the water), public undressing to make the longest line of clothes on the pool deck (where some female guests were exceedingly adventurous!), holding your breath underwater competition, swimsuit dance completion, fire limbo competition and the hotel team vs. guest team water polo game. Some of the guests who suggested these competitions also organized the events with help from other guests who were their friends. The hotel provided the equipment and support. A bi-lingual tour leader was happy to be the Master of Ceremonies.
In planning the first pool party, we wondered what would be a good ice breaker to commence this after dinner party. The key for a successful pool party was how quickly most of the guests could be motivated to jump into the water. The organizing committee plotted a clever concept to choreograph the party opening ice breaker.
Everything was ready for a great party. The guests were seated around the pool, multi-coloured lights on, the band performing, cocktails and drinks being served. But no one in the swimming pool yet. The committee asked me to continue grilling food behind the barbecue buffet in another area of the hotel, to server the late comer guests. I was in my chef uniform, but knowing the plot, wore some easy to remove shoes. “See, we have done all these beautiful arrangements, but Chandi is not here because he is still working. Shall we grab and carry him to the pool and throw him in?” A tour leader had asked the guests seated around the pool. “Yes, let’s punish the hotel manager!” some guests had joined the mischief.
Near the barbecue grill I heard some noise behind the trees. The moment I tried to run and escape, a bunch of strong German men tackled and took me a prisoner. While they were ceremoniously carrying me and making loud noises, I tried to free myself without luck. Then they threw me into the pool in the midst of loud cheers from the other guests. The committee’s choreographed plan worked like clockwork. The whole group was pushed into the pool within seconds by a group of employees who were ready for their secret mission!
“See what you did! You threw me into the water and now all of you were also pushed in fully clothed!” I told more than a dozen guests who were in the water with me. “Now, why don’t you push your friends into the water?” I motivated them. Within a minute, most of the other guests were thrown into the water and our first pool party commenced with a lot of screaming and laughter! The party continued until the early hours of the morning and it was an outstanding success. It became one of the most popular events of our weekly guest activities calendar.
Beach Parties
Encouraged with the success of the weekly pool parties, our team looked at the possibility of organizing another weekly event in addition to various buffet dinner events such as the Barbecue night, Oriental night and Seafood night. “How about a weekly beach party?” I challenged the team. After a short silence, I was told that due to an on-going beach boy menace, none of the dozen hotels in the area had ever tried to have special events on the beach. “That’s good, Swanee can be the first and the best!” I tried to inspire the team. “Sir, another good reason is that the beach is a pubic area and does not belong to the hotel” the newly recruited Maintenance Supervisor, Mr. Kumbalathara cautioned me. He was a well-connected community leader from the area and was loyal to me for hiring him in spite of various people advising me not to do so. He was correct about the beach situation.
Next morning while walking on the beach, I met Solomon, the tough local businessman who treated the hotel area as his territory. After I bestowed him with the title of “hotel-authorized tourist driver” a week ago, he had become my loyal supporter and a protector of Hotel Swanee. “Solomon Mudalali, I would like to organize a large beach party as a weekly event, but my team advised me that it is not a good idea as the beach boys will trouble us” I told him. “Sir, I will look after everything on the beach for you. What is the area you need for your party and when do you want to have the first weekly beach party?” he asked assertively.
After I told Solomon that I would like to use the entire beach in front of Hotel Swanee every Wednesday evening, he acted immediately by rounding up all the beach boys available on the beach at that hour. Then he addressed them in a commanding voice and with directive words. “I now look after Mr. Chandana Jayawardena and Hotel Swanee. As the only hotel authorized tourist chauffeur, I am committed to protecting this hotel. From next week, the hotel will use this part of the beach for a beach party every Wednesday evening. I do not want any of you around during these weekly parties! Understood?” “Yes, Solomon Mudalali Maththaya (Sir), fully understood” all the beach boys agreed in unison. Those who were dressed in folded sarongs, unfolded the sarong up to their ankles as a mark of respect to their fearless leader.
Within a week, the Hotel Swanee team organized the first beach party of Beruwala Moragalle beach. We created a rustic atmosphere similar to a fishing village. The menu was simple – a seafood broth, grilled fish, bread rolls and an arrack cocktail served in half coconut shells. We provided lotus leaves instead of plates and newspaper sheets cut into eight as napkins. We arranged a full circle of fire torches right round the beach in front of the hotel and lit a huge bonfire in the middle. We used some fishing boat oil lanterns to provide additional light. We requested the guests to sit on the beach and provided no furniture. They simply loved that rustic ambiance.
At the start of the party, we arranged for some catamarans rented from the local fishermen to arrive on the beach from the sea. As done in a fishing village, we pulled the catamarans and the nets full of fresh fish ashore. The calypso band played a traditional Sri Lankan fisherman song – “Hoolly helley hillayia…” Instead of villagers we arranged for the keen tourists to do this work, alongside employees.
Then we arranged for a few of the female guests to collect the fish into cane baskets and bring them to the grills where I worked with a few cooks dressed like fishermen. Some guests even bought local dresses from the hotel shop, as they were keen to look like real village women. Husbands and boyfriends took many memorable photographs. When the fish were cooked, we asked the guests to line up with their lotus leaves. Solomon was around to ensure good security and none of the beach boys appeared that evening. They all feared and respected Solomon.
During the first beach party, I realized that this event had the potential of becoming a larger and highly profitable weekly event. A large number of guests from the neighbouring larger hotels were begging us to allow them to participate, but we did not have enough fish for them. Next week, we trebled the catering arrangement. We also used two hotel elephants to promote the event. We made two very large batik banners in English and German with the wording: “BEACH PARTY TONIGHT AT HOTEL SWANEE” and dressed the elephants with the banners. We arranged the mahouts to walk the elephants from the Galle Road to the hotel and then up and down the entire Moragalle beach, passing a dozen of neighbouring hotels.
In addition to the two mahouts, accompanying the elephants, I sent our newly recruited Front Office Manager, Tyron Quin dressed like a local fisherman with flyers about the event. Tyron was a receptionist who worked with me at Coral Gardens Hotel. Having seen his potential then, I offered him his first management position, at Hotel Swanee. He was a fun-loving person and blossomed to an excellent Front Office Manager. Tyron, a Sri Lankan Burgher looked just like a European tourist. When he was dressed like a local fisherman, he received a lot of attention and interest from hundreds of tourists from other hotels sunbathing on the beach. The tourists thought that Tyron was one of them in a funny local outfit. Tyron did an excellent job promoting the event and in addition to 104 guests at Hotel Swanee, we attracted over 400 guests from neighbouring hotels for our second beach party.
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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