Sri Lankan farmers should look into shifting to higher value agriculture in order to improve output per farmer thereby increasing the income per farmer, Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said on Sunday speaking at the CEOs Forum 2018.
"By 'protecting' uncompetitive agriculture, we are in effect trapping farmers in low wage economic activity. It is clear that we need to gradually shift into higher value agriculture in order to improve output per farmer, and thus income per farmer", Samaraweera said.
The Minister added that to get there the government needs investment and technology – both FDI and domestic private investment. This same principle applies to all economic sectors; many of which are uncompetitive but have been protected, stifling competition, innovation, and real wage growth, whilst imposing high costs of protection on consumers.
"It is in this context that the government has embarked on a shift in the economic trajectory of Sri Lanka from a protected domestic market driven economy, to a more outward oriented economy", he said.
Samaraweera also said that the government needs to undertake more difficult and challenging reforms in order to drive future economic growth and development.
The Finance Minister pointed out that this entails improving the competitiveness of the economy, so that output per employee is higher, and this would be reflected in higher real wages.
"In order to drive competitiveness, it is necessary for economic resources to be diverted into activities that optimise output per worker. This requires a shift of economic activity into sectors where Sri Lanka is globally competitive and move out of sectors where we cannot compete", he added.
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