In the recent past, the direction of the world was determined by oil, gas and coal. The most powerful companies in the world were born with these resources. Shell, BP, Gazprom, Saudi Aramco are some examples. But today Paypal, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba, Uber, Airbnb have emerged over those companies.
Even though Paypal is the biggest bank in the world, there is not a single branch . Although Facebook is the world’s largest media company, there is no single journalist. Uber is the largest transport company, there is not a single vehicle. Airbnb is the world’s largest hotel provider, they do not have a single hotel. Although Amazon is the largest marketplace, there is not a single outlet. Although Google is the world’s largest advertising agency, they do not create a single ad.
E-commerce has become the most powerful commercial tool in the modern world. But in this context Sri Lanka is still in the Stone Age.
When ordering a product from abroad through the Internet, the payment must be converted into foreign currency. The relevant amount should be received by the seller. Companies such as PayPal perform the relevant intermediary tasks reliably. But Sri Lanka is yet to deal with companies like Paypal
In order to transact with Paypal, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, commercial banks, inland revenue department, and export control agencies must be properly networked. As we have not reached that stage, we can get goods from abroad. But the products of this country cannot be sold abroad.
When Ravi Karunanayake was the finance minister, he tried to connect Sri Lanka to the international e-commerce network together with ICTA. But it failed due to bureaucracy.
Then he prepared everything to carry out the work through a Canadian institution. But when the international e-commerce door was about to open for Sri Lanka, President Sirisena messed it up. Ravi resigned as Finance Minister due to Sirisena’s undue influence
A Sri Lankan entrepreneur has lost an export market worth billions of dollars because there is no way to get money by selling a product abroad through the Internet. Sri Lankans have lost lakhs of online jobs.
