A Vision for Sri Lanka 2030

People living fulfilling lives with equity, dignity and peace.

Mission – Create the enabling environment through communication, planning and administration.

This document aims to propose  a holistic approach in planning for the future prosperity of our country considering the main issues and challenges present and future.

1. Values, Leadership, justice, law and order
2. Urbanization and efficient public services
3. Economy and international relations
4. Human productivity and purposeful living
5. Infrastructure for efficient transport of goods and services.
6. Employment, occupation and economic activity.
7. Protection of environment and cultural development.
8. Constitution and governance,  Central and local responsibility
9. National Public service as a “Safety Net” for all.
10. National security

Planning and implementing will be through the dissemination and facilitation process with community ownership in developing a holistic strategy The mission will be carried out at district, local and community level.

1. Values, Leadership, justice, law and order

A new set of values based on humanity and responsibility need to be inculcated in the whole population.  This needs to be especially inculcated in the younger generation through education in the formation of character. Necessity for holding good values individually will be shown to benefit community living.  Peaceful co-existence will be transformed into building strong and friendly communities.

Political leadership will focus on good governance.  Party politics at community level needs to be made irrelevant in national social development.  With good public values inculcated, Law and order will be in promoting and maintaining community harmony.

All are equal in law where Justice must be dealt equitably. Rehabilitation through community service will be a preferred means of delivering justice. Punishment through Prison isolation will be discouraged.

2. Urbanization and efficient public services

There will be greater urbanization within healthy environments through, recreation, cultural development, education and occupation.  Sri Lanka will be one country, consisting of multinational, multicultural and multiethnic based communities where beauty in diversity is encouraged.  Building strong friendly communities consisting of all ethnicities will be focussed on.

All urban areas will be provided with a quality service base with water, sanitation, health and education facilities within planned communities.

Scarcity of land

Sri Lanka is 64,000 sq km in land area.  In order to maintain a healthy balance between environment protection and human habitation, a minimum 35% of land area for agriculture and 35% forest needs to be maintained.  This leaves 38 sq km of land area per district for urban living, which is equivalent to the land area of the city of Colombo in each district

Housing and integrated town planning.

One major challenge in urbanization is housing. High rise housing has not been shown as the long term answer to public housing.  Therefore shelter will based on affordable housing with private ownership within integrated Town planning.

Healthy living

Adequate access to parks, cultural and recreational centres need to be provided and encouraged

Age related support services

Over 25% of the population will be over the age of 60 with life expectancy increasing to 80 years. This requires increased support services for elderly care and financial support.  Home and family based support services needs to be encouraged. Free and specialized public transport for elderly to visit community centres on a daily basis would be one solution to ensure a good quality of life for the aged.

Education

Education has its objective in the formation of character.  A stable family environment will be the key to an educated population. Therefore, early education will be developed for character building. Primary education from 7 years up to the age of 14 needs to be targeted on character building and life skills development.  Secondary education can be based on expertise and skills development from selected specialized institutions.

For those people with children in school going age need efficient education infrastructure.  To provide quality education in rural areas for greater number of children will present a quality challenge.  Whereas with efficient public transport, better use of IT and efficiencies, urbanization offers greater advantages for secondary education.

Based on studies (example Finland) and experience, primary education formal hours should be limited to 3 hrs. per day, ideally 9am to 12 noon. This leaves more time for children on self-learning through discovery and experimenting.

Health

Specialized health services through central hospitals can offer many advanced and emergency services.  There should be greater emphasis on prevention of diseases and less on cure.  Local medical practices including indigenous medicine must be developed while educating the public on how to live a healthy life.

Food

Climate changes have made food production challenging.  One seasonal change can mean total crop failure and destitution to many families.

A balanced view of food in affordability and nutrition needs to be considered in urban living. Fast food offer convenience but lack of nutrition leading to health challenges.

Water and Energy

Water is a limited resource that needs to be managed with priority for human activity. This means for agricultural use and human consumption. Serious attention should be given to ensure that waterways are not polluted by agricultural toxins and industrial pollutants.

Sri Lanka’s energy patterns are different to that of industrial countries. Therefore energy demand management needs to be given adequate attention using better application of technology. Simply adopting solar will not solve our energy needs problems for the country.

3. Economy and international relations

The true measure of economic success of this strategic implantation will be progressively measured with timely targets on progress achieved.  A new measure for economic prosperity of the country based on citizen’s wellbeing needs to be established.

Economic development will focus of human well being.  Government will focus of establishing an enabling environment for economic success through efficient services. Government will operate services such as health education water and sanitations as essential services. Private participation and competition in all areas will be encouraged. All non essential service organizations will be diversified from government control.

Government income for operations will be derived mainly from taxation based on growth from economic development.  All government operations will be non-profit for social benefit.

International relations will be established in order to secure a prestigious state for the Sri Lankan citizen in the world.  Development of the brand “Sri Lanka” with an image building business trust and quality service will be developed.  This would enable any Sri Lankan Citizen to travel widely with ease as well as Sri Lanka to be a safe and friendly country with a rich cultural heritage.

Sri Lanka should stand for and advocate the preservation of human dignity in all parts of the world raising her voice against discrimination. To this end Sri Lanka should also stand as a model for the preservation of human dignity and equity.

4. Human productivity and purposeful living

A healthy population will be the greatest asset for Sri Lanka to prosper.

The National Health Service will be focussed on building a healthy Nation.  Major effort will be made to reverse the spread of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and liver disease through lifestyle changes and food chain safety.   Affordable public healthcare will be available to all as an essential service, while encouraging private sector participation.

School education will be focussed on building good character and life skills for innovation and human development. A well educated skilled workforce to cater for emerging social and economic demands will be developed.

Limited resources such as water and land will be well managed with plans to mitigate effects of climate change and natural and manmade disasters.

Our elderly citizens will be cared for within an extended family culture with public assistance and community facilitation.

A safety net will be in place for the under privileged and disabled citizens to live life with dignity.

Rehabilitation rather than punishment through imprisonment will be the focus of justice to address maintaining law and order.

All government services will be accessible with efficient and effective use of Information Technology.

5. Infrastructure for efficient distribution of goods and services.

Today, technology offers a great opportunity to plan for what would be a prosperous, equitable and peaceful society for all. In order to achieve this there will be holistic planning with a visionary future in mind.

Planning and implementing will be through a knowledge and facilitation process with community ownership. Once the overall strategy is developed, the mission will be carried out at district, local and community level.   Each district will work towards encouraging inward population migration with the offer of “family prosperity and healthy living”.

Due to urban migration, over 30% of the population will live in urban community townships engaged in economic activity while 70% living in rural communities occupied in agriculture and industry. Therefore each of the 25 districts needs to cater for over 1 million people on average in a district townships.  Major cities such as Colombo metropolitan will need to cater for up to 4 million people. This means having 4 major cities of one million people and townships of 100,000 people in such districts. Urbanization brings in many opportunities as well as challenges.

In order to ensure equitable distribution of services efficient infrastructure will be planned and put in place as a priority.  Even in mass scale production the need for human labour intervention will be there even in much reduced numbers.  Goods may need to be transported far and wide while localization of social economic activity will be encouraged.

6. Employment, occupation and economic activity

To maintain a healthy balance in lifestyle, people need to be engaged in a purposeful occupation, not only as a means of economic sustenance, but also for human dignity and progress of humanity.

Innovation is a necessity to maintain quality of life. Competition encourages development of good qualities.

Do we plan for more localized food production through manual farming or mass scale mechanised production? Europe, US and Australia has sufficient landmass to grow food efficiently and transported across the world to others areas where land is limited.  There seem to need a balance between efficiency and nutrition. Industrialized farming tends to use more and more pesticides and chemicals harmful to the environment to overcome or counteract nature.  There are dairy Mountains, Sugar Mountains and food mountains in Europe due to over production, while there is scarcity in certain other countries.

While flooding the country with cheaper imported food items will make for greater efficiencies, it will not only put many local farmers out of business but also question the nutritional values of it as well as threaten food security.

Therefore a global outlook is needed in planning for future demands for occupations and required skills. A longer term look at the demands for goods and services in the international market will mitigate the frequent shocks from market changes.

Every new innovation that needs new skills will also draw international competition and life cycle changes. Garment manufacture, IT, business outsourcing, tourism, component assembly, commodity among others have changing demand lifecycles.

This needs a skills set that can change and adapt to changing needs. Technical skills training and adult education needs to be available to suit such changing needs.

7. Protection of environment and cultural development.

The effects of global warming have shown its impact on life in catastrophic ways. Weather changes impact food production, health and livelihood. Sri Lanka’s forest cover has reduced from 48% in 1940’s to 23% by year 2000.

A 50% forest cover in the island will be a target for the protection of environment and biodiversity. The use of harmful pesticide and weedicide will be banned in food production. Extensive research will be conducted to find causes for decreases due to chemical use in order to build a healthy society.

Indigenous practices for medicine and farming will be promoted where beneficial.

Our cultural development should be people centred. The ideal lifestyle for a human is to work for 6 hours a day on average for 5 days a week.  Formal schooling limited to a maximum of 3 hrs a day and education focussed on character building.  The concept of employment based on need, where people work as much as they wish to and need to.  Personal development, recreation and social interaction will be part of holistic living. There will be facilities available for such human development.

People will eat healthy and live healthy with a focus on building a healthy Nation.

Office “Workplace” will be for people interaction. Technology will take centre stage in communication, transport, manufacturing and service.  70% of economic activity will be service based and 30% industry and agriculture.

Art and culture will be considered a part of life and will be developed for national progress and to build a cultural identity with rich diversity.

8. Constitution and governance,  Central and local responsibility

The country will have a new Constitution for governance for the benefit of all her people. The following are its salient features.

1. Sri Lanka is one country with a multiracial, multiethnic, multi-religious and multicultural society and an independent, non aligned democratic state. The National day of Sri Lanka will be celebrated with all community participating in showcasing our diverse cultural heritage through art and culture.  (ideally the April Poya day where all communities celebrate “bountiful harvest”.)
2. The President elected every 5 years will have executive powers for the enactment of laws passed through parliamentary legislature and will not hold political office while being President. The President is the head of the civil service and be held accountable to the people.
3. The Prime Minister (PM) will be the democratically elected leader of the party with the highest number of elected seats in parliament. The PM will appoint members of parliament to the Cabinet of Ministers. Cabinet meetings will be chaired by the president.
4. Political parties may hold economic or social based ideologies. Religious, racial or ethnicity based Political parties with will not be allowed to be represented in parliament. Promotion of Racial hatred and discrimination will be illegal.
5. Members of parliament will consist of men and women representing electorates and a maximum number of cabinet members of 10 per million population elected by the people. Parliamentary elections will be held once every 5 years or at the request of the Prime Minister.
6. A cabinet of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister will consist of a maximum of 25 elected members of Parliament (1 per million populations). This will be the Prime minister, 16 ministers with portfolios and 5 ministers representing each Province, The portfolios held will include Finance, Foreign affairs, Defence, International Trade, food and agriculture, social service (health, education), transport and infrastructure, Justice (including Law and Order), National trade and commerce, Commercial transport (including ports and Airports), power, water and energy, Public services, women and children, religious and ethnic affairs. There will be 5 members proposed in cabinet from the opposition in parliament. The Ministers for each portfolio will be appointed by the Prime Minister.
7. The cabinet of ministers will enact laws at national level. Ministers will have powers of governance while the civil service will have executive responsibilities. The governance of the civil service will be by an appointed council of civil servants. There will be 2 independent Councils for police and justice reporting directly to the cabinet.
8. There will be a provincial council governing each province. The provincial council will consist of elected members from each province. Provincial council will have administrative powers including land allocation, police and justice.
9. All citizens of Sri Lanka will have equality in law and equity in service.
10. All citizens have a duty and responsibility in law to protect and assist in the development of national assets as well as social and upholding moral values.

9. National Public service as a “Safety Net” for all.

The public service will act as a safety net for all its citizens.  All citizens have a right to live in peace, dignity and safely. The primary duty of Law and order is to ensure public safety. All Citizens have a right to pursue employment or occupation of choice, and to pursue in faith belief or religion of choice. Right to freedom of speech should not harm social and ethnic harmony.

The public services will also ensure the availability of adequate sources for education and skills training for gainful occupation.  However those who cannot find employment or unavailable for employment (single mothers or father with children, elderly and disabled) will be provided a basic support for a life with dignity.

IT opportunities for greater efficiencies in public service

Most public services no longer require human travel.  Using IT, government services can be localized and minimised.  The need to travel to obtain public services should be minimised through greater IT efficiency.

10. National security

The focus of national security forces, Army, Navy and Air force will be to ensure the security and integrity of land and sea within the national territory of Sri Lanka. They will be called upon when necessary to protect law and order as well as national development where applicable.