Analysts said that in order to survive the global financial crisis, the 17th Amendment should be implemented so that the long felt need for the Constitutional Council and other independent commissions of the public sector can be established.

In a seminar organised by the Socialists People’s Front (comprising five left wing political parties) last Saturday, participants raised a series of questions as to how the public sector can be made more accountable and free from political interference unless the 17 Amendment was implemented.

Earlier, Dr. Lloyd Fernando, Former Chairman of the MARGA institute and member of several Presidential Commissions including the National Economic Council, said that only better economic planning and efficient implementation of development projects will see the country through the global financial crisis.

He said Sri Lanka could face a Balance of Payments crisis by April 2009, with remittances expected to decline and commercial foreign loans difficult to come by because of the global financial crisis.

However, the Central Bank is expected to announce the government’s plan to raise foreign reserves early next January.

Dr. Fernando, like many other industrialists and economists, said that boosting exports and domestic industries was the next viable option.

Quoting Dr. Howard Nicholas, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Social Studies, Netherlands, he warned the global economic crisis could last for 6 years as the need to restructure the corporate world is being delayed due to unemployment concerns.

"The global financial crisis cannot be wished away and Sri Lanka must be prepared for some hard times ahead," Dr. Fernando said.

"The private sector is the engine of growth but it is the public sector that drives the engine so it is of paramount importance that the public sector is reformed, educated and trained to meet the challenges."

In response to his statements, participants asked how the public sector can be reformed while they continue to be pray to political interference.

Many acknowledged that it was by implementing the 17th Amendment.

Dr. Fernando later told the Island Financial Review that some in the public sector were clueless about what needs to be done.

Some say that technology and IT must be taken to rural areas of the country but this has been talked about for years and the government has made progress though the Information and Communication Technology Agency’s Nanasala Project.