COLLABORATE ENGINEERS - THE TIME IS NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
Dear Colleagues,
Following are some interesting and worrisome headlines from last few months. Please take time to read the articles in full and think for yourself rather than just buying everything. My intention was to give the reader a baseline to build my case for massive collaboration among Sri Lankan engineers ( local and diaspora) RIGHT NOW!
"The IMF also noted that Sri Lanka’s debt was currently equivalent to 88.9 percent of the country’s $60 billion economy, a dramatic increase in its debt to GDP ratio, which was at 78.3 percent in 2013". (Read more).
"Foreign debt is a dangerous issue, excessively created since 2010, left by the previous regime, which the present regime has to manage properly and avoid a debt crisis situation in Sri Lanka. At the end of March 2015, the overall volume of foreign debt would have reached $70 billion or nearly five times of the government revenue while debt repayment is almost equal to the revenue. According to the evidence, the country could be closer to the “Dangerous Red Line” of debt crisis. If Sri Lanka actually faces a debt crisis situation, it would be intolerable and miserable for all us as we are a relatively inward-oriented and proud nation. The gateway out of the debt crisis lies in between the destiny of continuing to take foreign debt in the future and creation of a strong economy leading to earning sizeable volumes of foreign exchange while taking appropriate policy reforms preventing a debt crisis. In addition, the probable remedial measures that can be taken to avoid this crisis lies in a politically stable government in Sri Lanka in the near future, enabling them to take both short term and long term policy precautions." (Read more here).
What we do now as a nation will seal our fate for good. 2015 has been an year of revelations for us with the change of the Executive and country's governing body later. Now a new National Budget is being debated/discussed before it gets ratified hopefully in December 2015.
If you read the essence of the above two articles and pay attention to the "signals" rather than the noise, few things are very clear to us, the engineers. What ever we do to escape from this debt trap and propel the country forward at the same time ( that's the challenge), ENGINEERS WILL HAVE TO PLAY A HUGE ROLE. Innovations, Inventions, Productivity Improvements, Infrastructure Maintenance and Build Up , Education, Health, Bi Lateral Trade, Manufacturing, etc., are all engineers playgrounds. We are the ones to make it happen when all talks stop and the walk begins.
We must be active at policy, planning, and implementation levels of the Sri Lankan economy and society. This is a time to test our will, our capabilities, and really our own souls as citizens of this country who have been especially treated by its citizens.
Therefore, I urge you to use the ICT Tools created three years ago to discuss, get organized and launch initiatives to help the country as a team.
PLEASE USE FORUMS that can be accessed from the Homepage (www.iesl.lk). One has to login to the system ( username is your email to which you receive IESL communications and the password which can be reset online if you have forgotten ). We have two critical forums:
1. Meet IESL President and the Council - use this forum to rally our elected leaders and seek their help and also to support their initiatives. Our Council members should use this very proactively to reach out to the membership.
2. Ask an Engineer - use this forum to rally our engineering community ( your friends, colleagues, subordinates, bosses), to learn, to exchange, to plan, to get organized, to implement, etc.
Once you are in a forum you can respond ( reply ) to an existing topic or create a new topic. When you create or reply, if you have more than text, such as a URL link of an external web page or a link to a saved document / photo inside Drop Box or a similar tool, use the text editor menu item that looks like a chain to insert it properly.
You can type in Sinhala or Tamil utilizing an online service such as the one below and cut and paste the content to the forum.
Most importantly subscribe to the Forum by clicking the "Subscribe" link at the top right corner of the Forum Main page. This will ensure all activities are directly emailed to you and you will not miss any action.
Now is the time to at least discuss and learn fast to get involved in the affairs of our motherland (beyond our routine job) so you know how to be proactive ( not reactive) about infrastructure projects, existing operations, etc. that are being considered to be handed over to foreign parties without we - engineers - fully understanding the ramifications. Here are some interesting ones:
1. What about the bi lateral trade agreements that are being pursued at a rapid pace such as India - Sri Lanka ETCA ( the new name for CEPA more or less) to be signed in May of 2016 and so many others ( about 8 countries including Bangladesh, Vietnam, USA). Read more.
GET INVOLVED PLEASE! GIVE THOUGHTFUL SOLUTIONS WHILE FULLY UNDERSTANDING ECONOMIC, GEOPOLITICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, SOCIAL CHANGES TAKING PLACE AROUND US EVERY DAY. Don't let the media confuse us or confused bureaucrats make blunders that will take nation over the cliff. We cannot be observers anymore.
Follow IESL Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee on Twitter: @IESL_MESC
(Author of this article is the first ICT Committee Chair at IESL and was the architect of IESL ICT-fication in 2012/2013)
"All Council Members can be contacted via email or phone by first login as a member to MyIESL and then acceding the Council Directory. It is also possible to communicate your concerns from anywhere in the world by posting them to the Forum - Meet The President and Council from the Forum page"
