The Treasury Secretary, Dr. P. B. Jayasundara made these comments in an interview with The Island yesterday.

The focus should be on developing comparative advantages which exist in the country to reduce import costs and develop export revenues.

The livelihoods of Sri Lankans would also be developed automatically with growing incomes.

The country should focus on further developing the foreign employment sector as it is the highest contributor to the national economy, and has further potential to expand.

Sri Lanka has a potential to earn more than US$ 10 billion from foreign employment, he said.

Foreign employment can help boost Sri Lanka’s national economy to grow if facilitated through right methods, bringing in foreign exchange, said Dr Jayasundara at the induction of the 20th President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL).

According to Dr. Jayasundara, Sri Lanka should look into professionals to earn more foreign exchange so that it can earn a higher amount from a lower number of Lankan expatriates.

The country has a good knowledge base, he said. The base is high in standard compared to the other developing countries in the region.
Sri Lanka’s business profile should be changed and methodized in to a more equalized and active system, he added.

This will also reduce issues arising from cheap labour, while entrepreneurs become forced to pay a fair salary to employ professional labour, Dr. Jayasundara said.