Nationalisation, biggest blunder in post-independence Sri Lanka
One of the biggest post-independence economic blunders Sri Lanka committed was the nationalisation of private businesses, commencing from private passenger transport system to private plantation companies, a top entrepreneur has said.
Addressing members of the Sunday Times Business Club (STBT) at its monthly meeting this week at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Chairman, Laugfs Holdings also called for a commission of inquiry to assess such blunders committed.
Two other entrepreneurs Nishan K Silva and Samantha Kandagoda, along with Mr. Wegapitiya shared their experiences on becoming successful entrepreneurs.
He said that before the private passenger transport was nationalized many decades back, there were 7,000 privately owned buses, the largest bus fleet in the world and there were 50,000 employees operated by six private passenger transport companies. There were also moves at the time, he noted, to sign agreements with ‘Fiat’ to set up an automobile manufacturing company in Sri Lanka, to export buses to China. He said that the nationalization of private business was a singular blunder to the national economy.
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