The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) in Sri Lanka hosted its inaugural ‘Breakfast Buzz’ series recently to bring together policymakers and private sector stakeholders for greater collaboration and understanding in their shared effort to expand the Sri Lankan economy.
The event brought together many high-profile personalities from the public and private sectors.
The first event was titled ‘Changing the Paradigm: Crafting and Implementing Evidence Based Policies’, with insights from keynote speaker Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Mangala Samaraweera.
Minister Samaraweera stressed on the importance of policy stability and predictability in attracting and retaining investments in Sri Lanka. The Government must ensure that new policies are created and implemented without disruption, regardless of changes in political leadership, to cultivate a healthy economy.
The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion where leading economic and business experts deliberated on the key issues for the economy. The panelists included Senior Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Mano Tittawela; Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Deshal de Mel; Country Head, Fitch Ratings Sri Lanka, Maninda Wickramasinghe and Chairman, SLASSCOM, Jeevan Gnanam. The session was moderated by Precedent Partner, Nithya Partners, Arittha Wikramanayake.
There was broad agreement among the audience that the current norm of ad-hoc policy changes was a massive deterrent for strategic investments and creates negative investor sentiment. Business leaders discussed the negative impact of politically motivated decisions which was a strong impediment for business to operate.
President, AMCHAM Sri Lanka, Michael Koest said, “Our goal is to create a platform where policymakers can partner with businesses and have open conversations to build sound and balanced policies. This kind of dialogue would make policy enforcement and compliance easier as policymakers can tap into industry expertise to help in economic and national development.”
AMCHAM’s Breakfast Buzz series will serve as a platform for open dialogue, knowledge sharing and the interaction of differing opinions among leaders in the public and private sectors, key decision-makers and the media.
The series will cover a range of topics such as smart policy making, modernising regulations and the justice system, revamping Sri Lanka’s education and talent management, better IP rights and data protection laws, tight anti-smuggling and counterfeit operations and creating an efficient bureaucracy.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka founded in 1992, brings together over 400 members representing over 260 leading Sri Lankan and American companies based in Sri Lanka.