By W A Wijewardena –
A Chinese tech-university is a good development
It has been reported in the media that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had requested the visiting high-level delegation from China to help establish a tech-university in Sri Lanka (available at: ). This is a salutary development on several counts.
First, China is a leader in technology and its universities are moving up in the league table of renowned universities in the world year after year. Second, Sri Lanka has now been downgraded from a higher middle-income country to a lower middle-income country on account of its poor economic performance in 2019. With the economic downfall arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka is going to live in this lowered status at least in the next few years. Thus, it has been a stumbling block for the country to reach its goal of becoming a rich country in a single generation.
Third, during the previous Yahapalana Government as an important component of its Megapolis Project, a techno city has been set-up in Pitipana, Homagama with the joint participation of local universities and industry. Already, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura has moved its Faculty of Technology to Pitipana site. Universities of Colombo and Moratuwa are expected to follow suit soon.
From industry side, one of the pharma companies, JL Morrison, has set up a state-of-the-art new manufacturing facility there. Hence, if a Chinese tech-university comes to Pitipana, it will not only create a healthy competition among universities concerned but also support the local and international private sector industry that chooses to set up their incubation centres in the place. Hence, this is a move to be supported by everybody.
Need for carrying it to a fruition
However, the caveat is that it should not remain just a wish of the authorities. The previous Yahapalana Government too made a similar request from India to establish a branch of its world-famous Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs in Sri Lanka. But this was not carried to a fruition and, hence, it just remained a wish of the authorities. The other point is that if Sri Lanka is to become a hub of higher learning, the country should invite not only universities from China but also those of other countries, notably, India, UK and Malaysia to setup branches here. Such a diversified presence of world-famous universities on Sri Lankan soil will certainly help the country to regain its old glory of being a hub of learning and knowledge.
Technology is needed to beat the middle-income trap
One problem which Sri Lanka faces in its journey toward a rich country is the possibility of getting snared in what is now known as ‘the middle-income country trap’. Sri Lanka became a lower middle-income country in 1997 but even after 23 years, it still remains in that state. The middle-income trap can be elaborated as follows: A poor country with its abundant cheap labour could produce labour intensive products for the rest of the world and move up in the ladder to become a middle-income country. However, it will get stuck as a middle-income country forever due to two reasons.
One is that it no longer can compete with the newcomers to the labour-intensive product market because of the increase in its wage levels, a corollary of moving into the middle-income level. The other is that it cannot compete with rich countries because it does not have the required high technology to do so.
Thus, the acquisition of advanced technology is the most crucial factor that determines whether Sri Lanka could join the high-income country club within the next two decades. The way to do so is to accumulate a critical mass of a science and technology base within the country. Such a base will generate new inventions which are the seeds of future economic growth.
Inventions should be converted to commercial products via innovation
However, inventions alone are not sufficient for a nation to move forward. The Austrian-American economist, Joseph Schumpeter, in his 1911 book The Theory of Economic Development, made a fine distinction between invention and innovation. Invention is a creation of a new idea, product or service. It is the people with brain power who would do so by getting continuously engaged in research and development. Thus, the scientific research is the base of new inventions.
But inventions per se will not help a nation. Such inventions must be converted into commercially viable goods and services for use by people. That task is accomplished by a group of people known as entrepreneurs. Schumpeter called this process ‘innovation’. Innovators would examine the market viability of inventions, mobilise the needed resources, take the risk and produce a usable good or a service. Thus, without innovators, inventions would just remain an idea put to paper by a researcher or a prototype product that could be replicated through a manufacturing process.
Example 1: Apple Macintosh Desktop computer
Just two examples from the recent past would clarify this point. The first Apple Macintosh Desktop was created by an engineer-inventor called Stephan Wozniak. It would have remained a prototype machine had it not been for the intervention of an entrepreneur called Steve Jobs. He mobilised resources through venture capital financing, organised the production process in the form of an enterprise, developed supply and market chains and created a brand name for Apple products. The result was the creation of a new product by destroying an existing manufacturing process. Schumpeter called it an instance of creative destruction.
Example 2: Gorilla Glass in smart phones
The other example too relates to a subsequent Apple product called iPhone, the smart mobile phone introduced by Steve Jobs to the market in 2006. The phone had a screen that had to be swiped with fingers when one uses it. Hence, the screen should be both scratch-free and break-free. When Steve Jobs made inquiries, it was found that another US Company called Corning Inc. had in 1960 created a glass called ‘Gorilla Glass’ for use by the US Air Force in fighter jets. However, the US Air Force had not used it and remained a prototype creation since 1960. When Steve Jobs, the innovator, found that the Gorilla Glass was the ideal glass for the screen of iPhone, Corning Inc., the inventor, began to produce it on a massive scale. Accordingly, an invention that had remained idle for 45 years was put to use by an innovator called Steve Jobs. With that of course, all smart phone manufacturers have now started using Gorilla Glass for the screen of the phones they are manufacturing. That has given birth to a world-wide new industry.
Creating a common future through technology
Thus, inventions and innovations should go hand in hand if inventions are to serve people. Inventions are done by scientists, people who work in research institutions or universities. They are the products of scientific research. That scientific research creates new technology. Hence, science, technology and innovation are three brothers who cannot be separated from each other. This was evident when South Korea hosted a few years back the OECD sponsored World Science and Technology Forum with an inspiring tagline. That is ‘Creating our common future through science, technology and innovation’. In today’s context, this should be the tagline for Sri Lanka too.
The curse of producing simple products
Sri Lanka’s current production mix is based on simple technology. The Economic Complexity Index compiled by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology has ranked Sri Lanka as a simple product producing country since 1995. Accordingly, for all these years, about 98% of Sri Lanka’s exports has been based on simple technology. The danger of such a product mix is two-fold.
First, any other simple product producing country can compete Sri Lanka out in the world markets. This has already manifested in Sri Lanka’s garment industry which is facing stiff competition from newcomers like Bangladesh or Myanmar. Second, Sri Lanka will not be able to break away from the middle-income country trap with only simple technology available. Hence, scientific research should generate not only new inventions but also complex inventions which cannot be copied by others easily. This is the crucial challenge the country’s research institutions are facing today.
Produce for a bigger market
Sri Lanka’s internal market is limited in size, capacity income and outreach. Hence, it has to capture a market bigger than the domestic market if it is to beat the middle-income trap. This is the policy thrust followed by countries in East Asia such as South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong that joined the rich country club within a generation. They were able to avoid the middle-income country trap successfully. But how? By building a gigantic research pool within them by using more and more resources on research and development every successive year.
According to World Bank data, both Singapore and South Korea, two science and technology powerhouses today, have been spending through both the public and private sectors about 2% of GDP continuously on Research and Development. This should be compared with Sri Lanka’s expenditure on same amounting to about 0.1% of GDP. Obviously, Sri Lanka should increase its expenditure on Research and Development to a higher level if it is to realise its target of producing for a market bigger than the national market. It is suggested that when the country progressively increases its expenditure on education to 6% of GDP over the next decade, 2% of that expenditure should be allocated to Research and Development.
Link researchers to industrialists
But will that be sufficient? No, because it should be accompanied by another element, namely, innovation. Research and Development or in other words, Science and Technology, should be linked to innovation, the process by which entrepreneurs convert the product of science and technology to commercially viable products. For that, research institutions, including universities, should be linked to industry. This linkage has been attained by other countries by establishing special research towns served by industry.
The Sheffield example
Among many, one of the examples for this new model is the Advanced Manufacturing Facility set up around the University of Sheffield, UK with many giants of industry and commerce being located there. The need for establishing such advanced manufacturing facilities has arisen due to sheer necessity: The need for competing successfully with low-wage and low-cost countries. Hence, it is necessary for advanced economies to bring out continuous innovation of production and processes involved in manufacturing.
To do so, they must engage in applied research, investment in sophisticated plant, technology and investment, automation of manufacturing processes through robotics, and developing a highly skilled workforce. All these four requirements are now met in one location where industry has been linked effectively to research and knowledge creation.
Regaining the old glory of Sheffield by being a thought-producer
Sheffield had been famous for quality steel products for decades. It was such a popular world brand, instead of calling ‘Made in England’, steel product manufacturers in Sheffield were successful in developing their own brand name, ‘Made in Sheffield’. Like Ceylon Tea, it instantly denoted quality and reliability. This was not be for long after Sheffield began to experience fierce competition from other countries that also went into the same production line such as Japan, South Korea and now China. Consequently, Sheffield lost its glamour as well as economic base.
Now to regain that lost glamour and lost economic base, Sheffield has established an Advanced Manufacturing Park around its University which functions as the key knowledge creator. It provides advanced manufacturing companies with industrial expertise, cutting-edge machines and equipment and solutions to complex industrial issues. More than 100 giant manufacturing companies including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Hitachi and Tata are in Sheffield Park.
Along with these giants, many small and medium size start-up research developers have also been set up in the Park in an incubator facility so that they could benefit from the practical exposure they would get by being in the Park. In addition, apprenticeship is provided to young workers to train them on the job thereby demonstrating that, to be creative and skilled, one need not have to acquire a four-year university degree.
Like the Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Park, advanced research towns have been established around almost all the leading universities in USA. MIT, Washington and Boston are some examples.
Don’t abandon the techno city project
What lessons are there for Sri Lanka to learn from these examples? Many. The previous Yahapalana Government wanted to convert the whole of the Western Province into a Megapolis of Techno Cities. Though the term Megapolis is not used, its offshoot Techno City has not been abandoned by the present Government. It was evident from the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, accompanied by his senior ministers, cutting the ribbon when opening the JL Morrison’s pharma manufacturing facility at Pitipana recently.
This is a salutary development from the point of the country’s move toward becoming a nation of science and technology. So, the Government should set up many more techno cities all around the country with participation of both state and private universities, research institutions and industrial ventures. In this context, the new research facility of Industrial Technology Institute or ITI at Malabe should be used fully for the benefit of the country. Its biotechnology unit has invented a number of new bioproducts that could be commercially produced if it is linked with industry properly. Setting up of another techno city around ITI’s Malabe facility is a good idea to be pursued.
Linking with world-famous research institutions
There is another way to improve the development of technology in Sri Lanka. That is to link the local research and technology development institutions to world famous such institutions. Such a move will help Sri Lanka to get technical assistance, develop collaborative research and technological inventions and upgrade the quality of its research facilities to match the world standards. A good candidate in this connection is the Colombo Port City Project, now nearing completion. It could build a world-class techno city of its own. Land could be allocated to host a leading foreign university and build around it an industrial town like the one built in Sheffield in the UK. That is the way to absorb the Colombo Port City seamlessly to the national economy.
Get ready for Industry 4.0
The world has already moved to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, designated Industry 4.0. The move was started in Germany in 2011 when the German Government decided to overhaul its industry for the future by applying what is now known as ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT to across industries. IoT will fix every gadget, machinery or equipment with internet sensors equipping them with capacity for teleoperation. Thus, future cars will be tele-driven, washing machines tele-operated and surgeries tele-performed.
When Sri Lanka changes its research thrust, it must reckon the new developments that are taking place in the rest of the world and prepare itself for the challenges it poses to the country. In that way, Sri Lanka can become an active partner in the global economy, rather than remaining a laggard.
*The writer, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com
Rajash / October 12, 2020
Gota wants attention grabbing head lines to fool the people.
why is that there is no Technology Park in the new Port Cirty?
now he is crying for tech investment.
Tech investment have a long term return.
what Gota amd Mahionds is the country is it is a shame there is not techpark zone in the new port city
https://twitter.com/ChinaEmbSL/status/1315230188213596160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1315230188213596160%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tamilwin.com%2Fcommunity%2F01%2F258201
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Rajash / October 12, 2020
Sorry about the typos.
I requested CT Editors not to post this message
However I guess you guys got the gist of the message
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old codger / October 12, 2020
Dr W writes :”The way to do so is to accumulate a critical mass of a science and technology base within the country. Such a base will generate new inventions”
Theoretically true, yes. But what is the real situation? Children ( or some of them) are taught science and technology in school. But all of them go to the Daham Pasala. The other day, I heard the local monk telling the children : ” You shouldn’t be foolish and look for new things which your ancestors didn’t have. And you must not seek useless knowledge like what the Sun is made of. You will never be satisfied. The Dhammapada has everything you need”.
Will the children invent new things or be brainwashed by the local authority figure?
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old codger / October 12, 2020
We need to root out of our culture the obsurantist ideas spread by authority figures all over the country, who promote things like astrology and irrational beliefs like Ravana. Otherwise, we will never become a nation of innovators. Journalists too are responsible. They should tell us our real history instead of spreading fairy stories.
But who will start? The country is already in the grip of superstitious buffoons and pseudo-intellectuals whose project is to fool the baiya voters with shiny new white elephants that even the baiyas grandchildren will be paying for.
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Pala / October 12, 2020
Looks like the old regime had very good plans and were making progress but new king can only ask the China for favors. The man has no brains to bless himself with. That includes the rest of the family as well. I work for a world class research facility I know a thing or two about what the author is talking about. But he himself was involved in the bond scam and kept making valiant efforts to muddy the waters and confuse the reader by attempting to rubbish the forensic auditors if I remember correct. Gotler thought it fit to waive quarantine procedure to get down Indian Brandix workers to stitch men’s underware. He did not want his mates the Omar family to lose the order. That is the honest truth of how Sri Lanka got a second wave of Covid. These fellows got so deperate to meet the order that they forced their employees to work with Covid fever while treating them in their own medical clinic with Panadol. What an Absolute buffoon of a man is this guy? Now all his henchman can do is deny deny deny as if anyone is going to believe their fairy tales. From now on, we will not be trusted to even stitch underware. High tech requires education dedication to high standards and innovative thinking. Our Moron brigade is not capable of getting even close.
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Walter 'William' Bagehot / October 12, 2020
How did you get a job in a ‘state of the art research facility’ if you keep believing the canard of Indian garment workers descending en masse to spread Covid here despite there not being an iota of proof (and plenty of evidence to the contrary) to back up that claim other than what is spread by a few ‘news’ websites? If you are making bold claims then back it up with evidence or it means everything you say is probably an equal lie.
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old codger / October 12, 2020
Bagehot,
“How did you get a job in a ‘state of the art research facility’ ?
Good question.
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Pala / October 15, 2020
Do seriously think I am going to tell you and reveal my to identity to the thug family who rules Sri Lanka? Nice try you and Walter. Go jump in a well. Typicle Sinhalese style if you don’t like what you hear attack the messenger and try to rubbish his reputation. Now that you did what you did. There are 1700 people with Covid referred to as the Brandix cluster. There were three plane loads of people flown down from India all Brandix employees. The Omar’s claim they were quarantined and submit documents. However, the PHI’s claim they never supervised the additional 14day quarantine.Covid is Raging in India. Jockey switched factories due to this reason. Does is take a rocket scientist to figure out where the outbreak came from. Unless you are an absolute Moron or a Gotler supporting fake media spreader. The military are deployed to do jobs they are not qualified to do just to harass and intimidate poor people. This is the direct result of incompetence at best being pure idiots by waving thru people to work without proper quaranatine at the worst.
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Pala / October 12, 2020
After all Mahinda is the man who blew off the Japanese delegation without even bothering to meet them when they came with a 150Million USD investment to construct a telescope in Mathale once upon a time. These are the godeatic greedy buffoons who were elected to power back again by an equely stupid electorate.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / October 13, 2020
Dear Dr WAW
Thank you Sir.
Thank you for sharing the wonderful thoughts by our GOSL for future planning. This kind of work that would have naturally happened a long time ago should we have all worked together & got on the Tiger Economies of Asia ladder in late 70’s and 80’s we would be leading the world….beneficiaries are India/Malaysia/Singapore/Thailand/Vietnam as all the investors went passed our killing skills rightfully so too.
Now we have a strong GOSL and setting themselves up for continuity too in administrative style (history shows this is where we went wrong on so much of non sense on democratic values by electing a bunch of crooks from all part of the Nation to squander the life/arms and limbs of our children for the past 70 years talking ghetto politics) and time to move forward. Respect to the GOSL.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / October 13, 2020
At the other end of the spectrum to what you are saying need some attention too – The focus should be not only on innovation but also in “Technical College’s” that produced the skilled local work force who can participate in Nation Building needs at all kinds of technical levels in the infrastructure building requirements. We produce and they all run away for better pastures overseas to serve someone else as we all did after 1977 will be a wasteful investment. Hopefully some restrictions will be imposed on this too as we need to invite and now many are back from overseas due to covid can teach some youngsters their skills acquired overseas/Mideast etc.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / October 13, 2020
In addition we need to get the public involved in inviting new technologies from around the world through their own due diligence (now they all have some connections to foreign lands utilising the Diaspora assets) for the local needs they identify and run pass the respective departments for approval as the locals will be the business partners (sleeping partners too quite literally at time I have noted in several Nations such as the ones I mentioned earlier) nevertheless gives them an income/bring investments at small scales/always ensured local content taking care of the Nations interest first to ensure no devious comes into the country for the wrong reasons per se etc. In the process locals also learn the entrepreneur skills too as the incoming to organisation/investor must be required to transfer skilled too. May be we can run some courses on this particular activity will help for the young to spend time usefully on the Internet/Social Media etc.
Spot on request to ask the Indians with the Indian Institutes of Technology SO THEY CAN WALK THE TALK I doubt.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / October 13, 2020
With regard to Malaysia they are in the process themselves on this activity and very succesful in attracting students around the Asian and SAARC countries to their own hubs they are in the process of developing. They have also attracted several institutions around the world to set up their colleges to cover the entire sector and local needs too avoiding expensive overseas education. In the process now got a very heathy population of students helping the entire economy comprehensively.
I did speak to my Universities like Cranfield University in the UK to look into Water/Wastewater/sewage treatment technology section to set up courses be it at MSc/Phd levels making it affordable for students to study……..this requires a very high-level delegation from SL/British Government blessings as this is more of a political decisions too.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / October 13, 2020
This could be done as Cranfield covers the entire spectrum of specialised studies be it only postgraduate work but could be great for the Nation to Nation planning/diplomacy where we make healthy friendships without the politics for a change connecting the young between Nations a balanced approach of a very Neutral Nation Statehood as a Foreign Policy now our Excellency has pitched us in the right place for such results too.
After a miserable war for the first time we are in the right place with a balanced GOSL strong enough to push through the changes required overcoming the Ghetto Makers handicap investing I the future of our Nations Youth connecting to them to all the youths around the world. Given the geo politics currently it will also play major hand in SL playing a mediator roll in solving worldly affairs turning the table on all that has been wrong to date.
Thank you for a lovely article Sir.
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Rajash / October 13, 2020
Dr. W.A Wijewardena”
The other example too relates to a subsequent Apple product called iPhone,”
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any one heard of this product?
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Good Sense / October 13, 2020
We all must respect the good intentions of the author to make Sri Lanka prosperous through learning. Thanks Sir! for your time and energy put to full use for the benefit of Sri Lanka.
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