National 11 (Spotlight Weekly)

All Come To Sri Lanka

Ravaged by civil war, Sri Lanka is focusing on reconstruction

By KESHAB POUDEL, in Colombo

Never in its two-decade-long history has Sri Lanka seen a month when the country seems to have reached closer to achieving what it has long aspired for. Passing through the gloomy years of electricity outages and chaos of civil war, the country seems to be close to winning over all evils of the past.

"We are developing a long-term plan to cope with the power shortage and we donít want to repeat the power cuts like those of previous years," said K.K.Y.W. Perera, secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Power, at the inaugural ceremony of South Asia Regional Media Partnership on Energy.

Conducted by the US Energy Association (USEA) under the South Asia Regional Energy Partnership Program and funded by the US Agency for International Development, the three-day seminar focused on ways of promoting energy exchange among the nations of South Asia.

"At a time when the country is heading toward achieving long lasting peace in northeast with LTTE, we will require huge energy to rebuild the war-torn country. In that situation, we have to rely on our northern neighbor to have energy," said Vasana Wickersena, deputy news editor of Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka.

One can understand the mood of the Sri Lankan economy at a time when tourist arrivals have drastically increased. A large number of cricket fans and cricketers from around the world are gathering here to take part in the ICC Championship Trophy.

"Sunny days back for hotel stocks, Retail investors put their money on terror-struck but high potential tourism industry. Sectorís price index hits 8 years high," said the headlines of Sri Lankaís Daily Mirror Financial Times.

"We see the energy demand will go high. So the government of Sri Lanka is preparing long-term and short-term plans to build the capacity," said secretary Perera. Although Sri Lanka may not have energy resources now, but there is immense possibility to explore it in the region.

South Asian countries possess an immense variety of energy sources to transform their future. "Gas, hydro, coal and market ó everything the countries of the region have," said Sridhar Samudrala, deputy program manager of the USEA. "Sri Lanka can benefit from the immense energy sources available on the other side of the sea."

Although South Asian countries initiated regional cooperation nearly 18 years ago, it is yet to achieve tangible gains. Despite the immense possibility in tapping energy for collective self-reliance, the countries in the region seem to be ignoring it.

"If 14 warring countries in South African region can develop common energy pool and common grid to transport the energy from one corner to another, I donít understand why has it not taken place in South Asia where they have so many commonalities," said Vijaya Kanan, an energy expert from NEXANT. All 14 South African countries have recent history of conflict and war, but they are united in utilizing natural resources.

Moderated by Ericka Monnger of the USEA, the discussions also focused on the nominal media coverage energy-sector issues are receiving. " In the absence of information regarding the potentiality of energy in particular countries, the media may disseminate the wrong message. The media can play very important role to generate public awareness and to make the opinion," said Grant Stockdale from King Publishing House of United States.

"Energy is very much an issue related to the economy. We need to have more knowledge before writing any piece of news regarding energy. We cannot say how affordable the gas of Bangladesh is without making an intense study," said Faruque Ahmed, special correspondent of the Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha.

India has already started teaching the importance of energy in national development. "We have produced many films and slide-shows in order to generate awareness among different strata of the population about the importance of energy," said P.N. Hindwan, additional general manager of National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. "Despite the possibility of regional power sharing, we have not been able to copy the successful models of other parts of the world," said K.A. Badrinath, deputy chief of the business bureau of the Hindustan Times.

As the participants from South Asia discussed possible ways of promoting regional cooperation in energy, Sri Lankans are trying to grasp the peace and prosperity looming on the horizon following the start of direct peace talks between the government and the LTTE.