Department of Commerce Director General assured engineers that the sector will not be on the agenda when the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India comes up for further negotiations in March. "I assure that the engineering services sector will not be open for discussion when negotiations resume with India on CEPA until such time a regulatory framework is implemented to register and monitor engineers in Sri Lanka," Director General Manel de Silva said. de Silva said this at a panel discussion on CEPA and the ‘Export and Import of Professional Services-Opportunities for Sri Lankan Engineers’, organised by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka recently. "We will not open up the sector without regulations in place, and we will only do so when you ask us to do so," de Silva said allaying the engineers' fear that engineers from India will swarm over them if the sector was opened up through CEPA. "We are not against opening up the sector, but we have to be cautious because without proper monitoring the floodgates will be open and engineers could lose their jobs to Indians," the institution's President Ranjith Gunawardana said. Minister of Export Development and International Trade G. L. Peiris said that the government was taking a broad approach based on the priority of the people and with consultation with professional bodies. "Government will consult fully with professionals before decisions are taken. Government will never impose anything," he said. Peiris said that when the FTA was implemented there were strong fears and apprehensions but the experience proved otherwise. He said that trade with India grew from US$ 500 million in 1998 when the FTA was implemented to US$ 2.5 billion in 2007. "CEPA is a logical extension of the Free Trade Agreement currently in place with India," he said. Ravi Karunanayake MP said that the Services sector should take up the challenge to be globally competitive. He was for opening up the Services sector, but believed the government needed to take more precautions. He said that even without CEPA, Sri Lankan engineers are not getting an opportunity to work in the infrastructure projects handled by the Chinese, which could be an ideal opportunity for knowledge and technological transfers. "Government needs to be consistent and coherent in their policy. Once the trade agreements are signed there can be no turnaround. CEPA will not have a 13 amendment to fall back on," he remarked wryly. |
