During his maiden address to the Nation, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake touched on two issues that most other leaders have overlooked: the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA, IATA Code CMB) and the Sri Lankan passport.
Given its strategic location, Colombo should be a very important, world-class airport. Unfortunately, there are many shortcomings at the BIA, as pointed out by President Dissanayake. We must remember that the BIA is the first impression that a foreign visitor gets and they may form an impression about the whole country from the time they spend at the BIA.
Visa scam
Now that the visa scam is finally over and foreigners have an easier time getting in, the authorities must look into other facilities at the BIA. First, the authorities should remove the touts who operate in the arrivals hall and also outside the BIA precincts. They harass people to buy duty free goods and also arrange unauthorised taxis. Even the well-established banks at the arrivals lounge do a bit of touting to get tourist dollars. Naturally, all this creates a bad impression in the minds of foreign travellers.
Talking of taxis, the airport taxi service should be streamlined, with brand new, yellow (or any other colour) taxis being deployed. The Government, instead of granting duty free concessions to MPs and others, must grant concessions to well-known taxi operators to import 100-200 new cars in the Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla class for an exclusive airport taxi service.
However, the backbone of the shady airport taxi services must be broken before such a move, lest they sabotage the new taxi service. In fact, they did just that to a luxury bus service launched from the BIA to Colombo, a couple of months earlier. Moreover, the two ride-hailing services must be given a permanent spot in the arrival and departure terminals and unauthorised taxi touts should not be allowed to intimidate the drivers of ride hailing companies.
We need a luxury bus service that loops through all the Negombo and Colombo hotels, so that tourists have an alternative to taxis. A few years ago, a Colombo-Katunayake BIA train service was inaugurated with much fanfare, but it lasted less than a week. The new administration should think seriously about deploying a luxury express train on this route again for the convenience of foreign and local travellers. Its terminal station should be Kompanna Vidiya, which gives easy access to many Colombo hotels.
It is also noteworthy that JICA has agreed to give funding again for the second phase of the BIA redevelopment project. Japan halted all projects in Sri Lanka after the country went bankrupt, but the unilateral cancellation of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project by a previous Government and a Minister’s alleged attempt to solicit a bribe from Japanese companies (as a matter of policy, Japanese companies do not give commissions or bribes) were among the other causes for Japan’s decision to stay away. Hopefully, the second phase of the BIA expansion project will help solve many of the problems now associated with the BIA.
The other aspect mentioned by President Dissanayake in his speech alluded to the very low ranking of the Sri Lankan passport. Currently, Sri Lanka languishes in 92nd place in the latest Henley Passport Index (shared with Iran and South Sudan), with visa-free access to just 44 countries, many of them little-known islands. (Singapore ranks first, with visa-free access to 195 countries and territories). The only major countries that Sri Lankans can visit without a visa are Singapore, Thailand and the Maldives. Neighbouring Maldives, on the other hand, sits at number 53 with visa free access to 94 countries including the UK. We should really be ashamed of ourselves in this regard or rather, the more pertinent question is, what has our Foreign Ministry been doing all this time?
Dread and trepidation
It is with much dread and trepidation that I present my Sri Lankan passport especially to immigration officers in Western countries. Thankfully, I have never been questioned at length, mainly because the passport states my profession as ‘journalist’. But even that is no guarantee for a smooth entry. Recently, one of my younger colleagues was grilled for about half an hour by the immigration officers of a neighbouring country. Just imagine what others must be going through.
All right-thinking citizens of Sri Lanka will therefore applaud President Dissanayake’s assertion that he will add value to the Sri Lankan passport. The UAE is a fine example for a country that has climbed the passport rankings through sheer hard work and lengthy negotiations. Today, it ranks ninth on the list with visa-free access to a staggering 185 countries and territories. But here is the real shocker – just 20 years ago, it was in the 62nd place with visa-free access to only a few dozen countries. In the past 20 years, the UAE has added more than 100 countries to its visa-free list. Sri Lanka, rather unfortunately, has done the opposite – from 74th ranking in 2006, it has plunged to the 92nd slot. This means many countries have revoked visa-free status to Sri Lankans.
True, the GDP and Per Capita Income are two parameters that most countries look for when granting visa-free status to another country. But these are not the only criteria. One can understand why Western countries are reluctant to extend visa-free facilities to developing countries – there is a chance that many would stay away due to the unfavourable economic conditions back home. But it is rather mysterious why some countries which are economically on par or even worse off than Sri Lanka want Sri Lankans to get paper visas after a tedious documentation process. We even need a visa to enter South Sudan, with which we share the ‘exalted’ 92nd ranking. Something’s not quite right.
Since Sri Lanka will be granting visa-free entry unilaterally to citizens of 35 countries to promote tourism, as a first step, our Foreign Ministry must negotiate with at least 20 of these Governments to get visa reciprocity. That will instantly boost the value of our passport. In fact, there are many Sri Lankans who have migrated to Western countries solely to get a more powerful passport so that they can travel without getting cumbersome visas. I know of several Sri Lankans who have returned to Sri Lanka after getting these passports since their main aim was getting a passport that enables hassle-free travel, not migrating per se.
Clear target to diplomats
President Dissanayake and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath must give a clear target to our diplomats – take at least 20 more Global South countries off the ‘visa-required’ list within the next five years. Once that happens and Sri Lanka achieves reasonable GDP levels, they can work on the more developed countries. The Sri Lankan passport deserves a much better place than the 92nd slot.
Diplomats have been stationed in foreign countries not just to warm their seats – they must make sure that Sri Lankans get the benefit of spending foreign exchange for the upkeep of the missions and their staff. And enhancing people-to-people contact through hassle free travel is the best way of doing it. At the end of the day, we must be able to feel proud that we carry a Sri Lankan passport.
