PPPs vital for country’s development
Sri Lanka while committed to achieve sustainable growth will have to pursue a number of economic, social, and environmental targets with a holistic and a balance approach.
“The need for partnership between diverse groups, such as people and institutions has never been greater.” said the UNDP Country Director in Sri Lanka Joern Soerensen at the Public –Private Partnership forum held at the Hilton Colombo last week. The event was sponsored by the UNDP along with state ministries and private sector organisations.
The Country Director said that Sri Lanka had pledged its support to achieve sustainability goals in 2030 as mandated by the UNDP in 2015 along with 192 of the member states of the United Nations. He said the goals to achieve sustainable development are pushing not only public investments but private investments as well for the betterment of the country.
“You, as the private sector present here have recognised achieving sustainable goals was critical not from the standpoint of business but for the development of the country as a whole,” he said
Secretary to President Udaya Seneviratne delivering the keynote address, said: “We are now at a time where we have to keep up with the world’s development known as the Millennium Development Goals to achieve sustainable growth by 2030.”
He said it was important for the pubic and the private sectors to work together to achieve sustainable economic growth for the development of the country. The private sector had been the dynamic sector of Sri Lanka from the colonial period that depended upon on the plantation sector for its economic activities. Foreign exchange revenue was earned by exporting tea, rubber and from the coconut sector. However, following the independence, the responsibility of the government was focused more on the welfare of its citizen with emphasis on education, health care, social welfare and infrastructure development.
Referring to the period following 2015, he said the government has created a conducive environment for the private and the public sector to work together.
Meanwhile, a National Agency for Public-Private partnership had been proposed in the budget proposal in 2017 to cover many sectors such as transport, highways, power, ports, water supply, healthcare, education and housing. Agribusiness and the Gramashakthi programme initiated by the President will bring the public –private sectors together, he said. Unilever Sri Lanka Chairman Carl Cruz said operating sustainably helps to safeguard their supply chain against risks associated with climate change and water scarcity. ”We save over half a billion Euros by undertaking sustainability-linked ways and processes in our factories.”