“Tough measures needed to curb corruption”

The private sector is anticipating that tough measures will be taken by the government to curb corruption, said President of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Vish Govindasamy at the inauguration of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2020 at Shangri-La hotel yesterday.

The private sector expects that members of parliament and other senior government officials will support this drive towards curbing corruption by coming out with a declaration of their assets made public.

“We believe the transparency gained through this process will bring in acceptance and confidence in the public sector.”

“Sri Lanka is at a critical point in its economic development trajectory and there are different decisions to be made where the steps taken now by the government and the private sector will determine how to emerge from our current challenges,” he said.

“We need to complement tax reforms with other structural reforms predicted to trade investment cost recovery pricing and the age of doing business. We must understand that the inability to implement these reforms has led to the current economic crisis,” he stressed.

“We also know the critical importance of eliminating corruption spread through the country both in public and corporate sectors.”

He said that the private sector appreciated the enormity of the task taken by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and assured that they will be there to support the government at all times.

He also appealed to all to collaborate to assist the SME sector which is in a bad state.