- President, Secretary and the Members of the Institution of Engineers of Sri Lanka
- Distinguished invitees and Dear Friends,
At the very outset I wish to express my sincere appreciation to IESL for organizing this 109th Annual Sessions and inviting me as the chief guest of this occasion.
I am honored to be here not only as the Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, but also as a professional and a politician who recognize the value and understand the language of the professionals which is crucial for the development of our nation.
I must congratulate all of you for your presence at this event, specially at a time that Sri Lanka is fast getting into the path of becoming a competitive economy. I need not to say that Engineering is one of the key sectors that can contribute immensely to uplift an economy and to sustain it's competitive edge.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
21st Century engineers are faced with unprecedented challenges of developing a sustainable world in balance with the forces of nature to combat global environmental, social and economic crises. The role of the engineer as a specialist, expert or generalist will have to be understood in terms of the changing demands and needs of society.
The development of the modern world has been dominated by science, engineering and technology and the role of the engineer is linked closely to the needs of society. Engineering is not a stationary profession; it is continuingly evolving to include new sub disciplines.
The 21st century will be defined by some of the huge challenges now facing humanity. Among these are energy and food security, competition and scarcity of natural resources, and climate change. The demand for engineering skills is likely to be higher than ever before in order to deliver sustainable engineering systems, low-carbon energy technologies, and robust physical infrastructure to protect against geophysical hazards such as sea-level rise and extreme meteorological events.
An engineer’s prime responsibility has traditionally been to design products for the three Fs: Form, Fit and Function. But that wasn’t a responsibility without consequences. Today’s engineers have new responsibilities. They must act with implicit authority, meaning that the engineer isn’t given explicit command over other non-engineering stakeholders, to solve product issues and make the best decisions. As a result, their role requires substantial soft skills, including social traits, graces, skills and habits that effectively influence others.
Knowledge-based industries which are essential for shaping our future will not emerge out of thin air. Engineers essentially possess the technical knowledge and the problem solving skills to respond to the constant change. They need have a holistic understanding of the practical needs of communities, businesses and the environment they should be prepared work with other disciplines, including scientists and designers to provide a stream of new ideas and technical responses essential for sustainable competitive industries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the time I sought the mandate of the people to serve my motherland I had very clearly crafted my long term vision of transforming Sri Lanka into a “smart, soft and super" country for our future generations to live happily, peacefully and prosperously. In realization of this dream undoubtedly we need to build smart systems, soft people and super infrastructure.
Under my current responsibility of defining the direction and shape of the future urban Sri Lanka, we need to create a seedling ground for those systems, people and infrastructure with appropriate strategies to achieve our objectives. Towards this end we predominantly need, development of technoware as well as humanware, attitudinal transformation, sharing experiences and learning from best practices, building capacities and continuous improvement to accomplish our targets.
In this process of building the nation we as technocrats should be vigilant and quite concerned about one aspect which is very eloquently depicted in a writing of the great personality Mahatma Gandhi popularly known as The Seven Social Sins or sometimes called the Seven Blunders of the World. The blunder which is most relevant to us as engineers today: that is “Science without humanity”. As I perceive, it means that if science is left to its own without thinking about the consequences to humanity or mankind we will end up with a lot of inventions and scientific discoveries that could be detrimental to humanity.
Today we talk about building mega and smart cities and transforming the urban life of Sri Lanka towards economic prosperity, enhanced quality of life and increased Gross National Happiness. Urbanization is an inevitable process where we need to identify and augment the positive aspects of the process making it more and more a people friendly phenomena. Contrary to the popular outlook on urban life as overcrowded, polluted, distorted and restless ambiance, urbanization can bring about enormous positive changes into the lives of people with appropriate strategies and sensible management. Cities are considered centers of economic growth and cultural development and can offer countless other benefits to their inhabitants. According to recent surveys with just over 50% of total world population, urban centers generate more than 80% of global GDP.
Urbanization brings about a range of interconnected challenges in environmental, physical and societal contexts. This includes planning and design of road and rail networks, bridges, ports, airports, water and sewerage systems, waste management systems, telecommunications networks, grids of electricity and buildings of all sorts. In fast-growing cities, governments struggle to build infrastructure to maintain pace with the growing population. At the same time, technological advances make existing systems obsolete. Planners need to think in terms of sustainability, not just solving the problem now, but addressing longer time frames to make infrastructure adaptable, ecologically sensitive, and resilient to natural disasters, the effects of climate change.
Urbanization can have a critical role in future development scenarios. It can be critical for economic growth, for reduction of poverty, for stabilization of population growth and for long term sustainability. The challenge is how to achieve a pace and pattern of urban development that is beneficial to people and how to make a balanced approach in urbanization.
It is necessary to bring systematic changes and development processes into the urban community that will ensure that the inhabitants become a part of socio economic development of the country. High levels in quality of life also have to be maintained. While being on the infrastructure development drive, we should not neglect our environment, our value as a biodiversity hotspot. Being internationally known as a "smiling nation", happiness and the spiritual health of our people has also to be maintained.
Parallel to infrastructure initiatives, “economic life” of the people should reach required heights. Opportunities should emerge and avenues of earnings and livelihood of people has to be taken care of. Infrastructure development processes should be supplemented with social mobilization programmes which essentially address the humane aspects of urbanization.
Towards this end, the proposed urban development and Megapolis initiative should extend beyond the mere notion of building structures or creating isolated urban enclave, but well established and balanced ecosystem which supports socio, cultural, economic and spiritual wellbeing of all citizens. We shall make sure that the future urban Sri Lanka shall be holistic and smart, but not be skewed, irresponsible and self-centered. I firmly believe that only this approach will lead us towards a Smart, Soft and Super Nation.
We as engineers have a well defined role and responsibility in this process which we have to exercise dedicatedly and selflessly. However, the harsh reality is such that, knowledge potential of engineers are not fully utilized so far in the decision making process as far as the socio economic development process of the country is concerned. Most nations suffered huge losses in their economic activities due to inappropriate decisions taken either by bureaucrats or politicians who possessed no academic or professional background whatsoever. Therefore strengthening the participation of engineering professionals in the development decisions is rather essential.
Towards this end, empowering the profession of engineering and making them more equipped to fulfill their responsibilities is imperative. Today I wish to announce with great pleasure that arrangements are underway to establish the “Engineering Council” to regulate the professional practice of engineering in Sri Lanka. This process was initiated when I was Minister in Charge of Power and Energy and with the support of both Engineering Institutions of Sri Lanka approval of the Cabinet of Ministers has been sought for the Final Draft Bill. After the approval of the cabinet Final Draft Bill will soon be presented to the Parliament for its approval.
I invite the engineering professionals to be vigilant, conscious and accountable for producing a next generation of professionals who will also be ‘responsible citizens’ to take up the challenges of this new era. If we get all this right, we need not worry about challenging tomorrow but rather be confident that we are better-placed to secure tomorrow.
With that let me conclude by thanking the IESL for inviting me to take part and speak a few words at this forum. I wish all the success in deliberations today and also wish all the very best in their future endeavors.
I Thank you..!
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