ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe envisions a return to normal by the end of 2023, the president said inviting bureaucrats and other state sector workers to cooperate with the government in resolving all ongoing crises.
Speaking at a ceremony held at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo Monday January 02 morning to mark the beginning of the new calendar year, President Wickremesinghe told Secretariat staff and other officials gathered at the event that a new political system was on the cards.
“Five and a half months ago, we undertook a historic task at this very office. A government had collapsed along with the economy, and in those five and a half months, we took measures to turn things around,” said Wickremesinghe.
“We haven’t solved all our economic problems, but we’re now in a place where adequate quantities of fuel, food and fertiliser can be supplied. However, our programme doesn’t end here. 2023 is going to be the most important year,” he said.
Calling for an end to Sri Lanka’s debt burden, Wickremesinghe said ongoing efforts to restructure the island nation’s external debt must continue in the new year and a new economy that can compete with the world has to be created.
In a separate statement issued for the new year, President Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka is over the worst of its latest currency crisis but is trailing behind other nations as the country approaches its 75th year as an independent nation.
Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of the worst currency crisis triggered by its 73-year old intermediate regime central bank which printed money for two years to artificially suppress rates. Mismanagement by Wickremesinghe’s predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is also blamed for the crisis, along with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in July 2022 after a wave of protests centred around a makeshift ‘Gota Go Gama’ protest site adjacent to the Presidential Secretariat, the very grounds on which Wickremesinghe welcomed the new year under six months later.
Sri Lanka’s new commander-in-chief has been accused of suppressing the protests and arresting leading protestors, but his office and his backers in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) insist that legal action has only been initiated against persons and parties involved in violence. Wickremesinghe’s critics also accuse him of protecting the powerful Rajapaksa family.
Left-leaning parties as well as the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has been critical of Wickremesinghe’s reform agenda, accusing him of “selling national assets” and “adding to the people’s burdens”. The government, however, maintains that loss-making state owned enterprises need to be restructured and that cost-reflective tariffs for services such as electricity are vital in order for Sri Lanka to recover.
In his new year speech, the president touched on his plans with regard to Sri Lanka’s political system, which protestors, civil society and other actors have said is in need of urgent reform.
“A majority believe there needs to be a change in the country’s political system. We have to achieve that as well, in addition to economic recovery. We have to introduce a new system that will address the problems in the existing governance structures,” he said.
Wickremesinghe said his office looks at the state apparatus as a single unified system and not as divided ministries. All ministries function as part of this one system, he said.
“So there cannot be competition between the different parts, no tug-o-war. One’s own purview cannot be shrunk. Everyone is obligated to implement the country’s fundamental policies.
“The centre of this process will be the presidential secretariat, the cabinet office and the PM’s office. It is from here that we move forward,” he said.
Amid claims from sections of the opposition that Wickremesinghe’s administration plans to unfairly cull Sri Lanka’s bloated state sector, the president called for cooperation from government employees in bringing Sri Lanka back to normal.
“One’s duties will not be limited to eight hours a day or five days a week. Everyone gathered here, let’s all stay committed and work to bring the country back to normal by the end of 2023. I plan to take this country forward with the assistance of all of you,” he said. (Colombo/Jan02/2023)