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Challenges before the new government
By Dr. S. Colombage
Marking an end of a turbulent political and economic era, the masses have given a clear mandate to the UNP to form a new government. This proves that the public has disfavoured the seven-year PA rule, which was characterised by poor governance, economic mismanagement, wastage, inefficiency, corruption and prolonged war. The outgoing government has left hosts of socio-economic problems like chronic unemployment, acute poverty, low incomes, near-zero economic growth, double-digit inflation, dilapidated infrastructure, empty government coffers, mounting public debt and low foreign reserves. The new government is entrusted with the Herculean task of overcoming these obstacles and navigating the nation towards socio-economic progress.
Poverty is a major socio-economic problem in the country. Millions of people are deprived of individual basic needs such as food, clothing, health, housing and education. Measured in terms of these basic needs, around one-third of the total population is poor in the seven provinces outside the north and east. Poverty in the war-torn north and east is much higher. As household survey data are not available for these areas, the magnitude of poverty there is anybody's guess. Assuming that one half of the population in the north and east live below the poverty line, the total number of poor persons in the whole country would be at least two-fifths of the population or around seven million persons.
Poverty has aggravated in recent years due to the low GDP growth and high inflation. Even the little income increase generated by the meagre economic growth was not equally distributed among the provinces and as a result, there are wide regional disparities in income levels, employment and poverty. Economic growth has been concentrated in urban areas, mainly in the industrial and service sectors. Production growth has not been sufficiently broadbased to absorb the unemployed labour force scattered throughout the country. Unemployment is officially estimated at seven percent, but the actual unemployment exceeds ten percent, as I pointed out in this column previously. There is considerable under-employment as well. Much of the poor are concentrated in the rural areas, where about 80 percent of the population live.
Economic mismanagement has plunged the economy into a deep crisis, as I reiterated in this column earlier. Imprudent monetary policy measures adopted by the Central Bank have led to destabilise consumer prices, interest rates and exchange rates. The Treasury's huge cash flow shortfalls exert considerable demand pressure in the financial market, depressing the business sector. The relief package introduced by the government to win the election has widened the budget deficit to more than ten percent of GDP. That package reversed the planned structural reforms and thus jeopardised the IMF's Standby facility. The economic policy directions were not clear at all, and market uncertainty has been the order of the day. Entrepreneurs were hit by high interest costs, wage-price spirals, labour disputes, market volatility and abrupt policy decisions. It is necessary to eliminate such distortions so as to foster a market-friendly economic environment and to improve investor confidence. New economic policy strategies need to be formulated to achieve these objectives. Such a policy stance will induce the private sector, which is considered as "the engine of economic growth", to boost production, exports and employment opportunities and thereby reduce poverty.
The prolonged war has adversely affected economic development. Many productive lives have been lost and many are injured. The annual war expenditure of the government exceeding Rs. 50 billion is a severe strain on the budget. The economic burden of the war is estimated to be around one years' GDP. Settlement of this conflict, undoubtedly, is a prerequisite to achieve socio-economic progress.
Law and order have eroded badly and the adverse implications of this trend for economic progress are horrendous. Heightened election violence with a large number of killings, injuries and property damage have once again given the world community the impression that we are a nation that is unable even to conduct an election in a peaceful manner. Such violence adds a further risk element to investor confidence, which is already damaged by the fragile security conditions and the poor economic performance of the country. The credit and investment ratings for Sri Lanka in the country ranking are already at high-risk levels. Let alone settling the north-east conflict, restoration of law and order in the rest of the country is a major challenge to the new government.
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The ultra-secret invention that has kept the high-tech world a-buzz for the past year is a self-balancing, motorised scooter that costs under ten cents a day to operate and could usher in a new era of individual transport.
The machine, once code-named "Ginger," but now known as the Human Transporter, could replace private cars in crowded cities or battery-powered carts on factory floors by enabling riders to zip around safely in close quarters, its developer said.
"Telepathic transportation — that's the way it feels," inventor Dean Kamen said in an interview conducted as he absent-mindedly manoeuvered one of his two-wheeled prototype devices at a media demonstration room in New York last week.
Kamen and his closely held company, Segway LLC of Manchester, New Hampshire, said he seeks nothing less than to revolutionise the notion of personal transportation, creating a new category somewhere between a bicycle and a motor scooter.
In an arena associated with its share of crackpot and commercially stillborn inventions — from jet-powered personal hovercraft to recumbent bicycles — Kamen has amassed an impressive array of patented technology, corporate and financial backers and brand-name customers.
"The Human Transporter has a one-to-one correspondence to what human beings do when they walk," said Kamen, previously the creator of the first diabetic insulin pump and a wheelchair that can climb stairs — on which his latest invention is built.
To operate the self-balancing scooter, a rider simply leans forward to advance, leans back to reverse and turns by twisting the handle. First-time users must learn to stand still, then control the device by moving in the direction they want to go.
Segway LLC, the Manchester, New Hampshire company founded by Kamen to develop, manufacture and market the machine, is working with some of the world's most powerful transportation equipment makers to commercialise the product.
Emission-free engine nearing completion
On top of the scooter's "dynamic balancing" technology, Kamen's research arm, DEKA Research and Development Corp, is also working on a so-called Stirling engine, an emission-free energy source that recycles much of its own heat.
The potentially revolutionary engine will be incorporated into future versions, Kamen promised.
Segway (http://www.segway.com) expects to launch a 60-pound conventional battery-powered consumer version of the scooter for around $3,000 by the fourth quarter of next year.
Industrial-strength versions weighing 80 pounds (36 kg) and designed for rougher terrain will arrive by first quarter 2002, but cost some $8,000 to $10,000. Company officials forecast prices will drop quickly if sales reach mass-market levels.
Kamen said the transporter, which can move about three or four times faster than a pedestrian walking briskly, or 12 to 17 mph, is "complementary" rather than a competitive threat to the automobile industry. It has a range of about 17 miles and can be fully recharged overnight using an electrical outlet.
"If you want to go from New York to Europe, get in a plane. If you want to go from here to Philadelphia, get in a car. If you want to go from 21st Street to 42nd Street, use one of our devices," Kamen declared.
Backers, which include Kleiner, Perkins Caufield and Byers, Silicon Valley's premiere venture capitalist firm, and investment bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, believe the scooter could represent a new category of personal transport and have each invested $38 million to capitalise on the undertaking.
"The strategy here is to firmly establish this as a personal productivity tool," said Michael Schmertzler, co-head of CSFB Equity Partners in New York and chairman of the bank's investment board, who also serves as a director of Segway. The biggest potential threat to its mass adoption can be summed up in two words: pedestrian safety. The recent Razor scooter craze, which drew millions of youthful fans worldwide, also led the scooters to be banned in many downtown areas as threats to public safety.
To preempt such concerns, Segway officials have met with city planners and federal safety regulators to ensure the scooter will be allowed to share sidewalks with pedestrians. "It will be an acceptable way for an empowered pedestrian with magic sneakers to travel down the street," Kamen said.
The business plan aims to encourage responsible use of the devices in high-profile corporate and government functions to develop what officials call an "appropriate etiquette" for use on city streets.
To start, the U.S. Postal Service will test the device for use by letter carriers on their neighbourhood routes, with backing of the Postmaster-General.
Tests are also underway at parcel-delivery service, FedEx Corn, the U.S. National Park Service, auto parts maker, Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. and French tyre maker, Michelin.
While no contracts have been signed, executives from prospective customers have signaled they are ready to buy thousands of the scooters for their workers, Segway said. One is ready to buy tens of thousands if tests prove successful.
Segway has held talks with Atlanta's police chief about putting the city's beat cops on the company's scooters. The company also will target security guards on corporate campuses, warehouse workers and downtown parking enforcement officers — all in a bid to create model users of the product.
For the first year, Segway plans to focus on selling the scooters to businesses and consumers in North America. By 2003, Segway will begin marketing them overseas as a practical "people-mover" in developing nations like China, it said.
How it works
The two-wheeled device uses a complex array of gyroscopes and computers to mimic the human body's sense of balance. Five gyroscopes model the workings of the inner-ear. Ten microchips compare information and work as a kind of brain. Two digital signal processors convert real-world data into digital form.
Muscle comes from advanced servo-motors powered by the latest nickel and metal hydride electric batteries built by SAFT, a unit of France's Alcatel. Michelin, the world's largest tyre maker, has designed special non-marring rubber tyres that can handle ice, snow and other terrain as well as stairs, Segway officials said.
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