Value of De-mining in the North - a minimum of US$ 2 billion!

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Value of De-mining in the North - a minimum of US$ 2 billion!

.Central Bank Governor commends efforts of the Sri Lankan security forces during war and post-war period.
Central Bank Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal stated that the de-mining process in the Northern Province, had it been entrusted to an outside agency, would have cost the country a minimum of US$ 2 billion, and that such massive sum was saved because of the de-mining exercise carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces. He stated that around 1 million mines laid by the terrorist group, LTTE in various parts of the Northern Province have been so far removed, and if this dangerous and complicated job had been entrusted to an international de-mining organization, they would have charged at least US$ 2,000 per single de-mining, based on the risk and other logistical challenges. Further, such firms would have taken a lot longer to complete the work which would have substantially delayed the re-settlement process. The Governor also mentioned that this complex task of de-mining was handled by the Sri Lankan security forces and they had carried out this work in an amazingly short period of time, and, at a minimum cost.
Mr Cabraal made these remarks at the Symposium of Finance Company Directors held at Hotel Galadari on 7th December 2010, when explaining the concept of "productivity". He stated that the level of productivity was very high in the case of our security forces viz-a-viz certain other countries' forces, whose costs of operation have been much higher, although they have only been able to produce very limited results. In his address, the Governor pointed out that the entirety of the war and defence expenditure of Sri Lanka during the 4 year period, 2006 - 2009, amounted to less than US$ 6 billion and that such expenditure yielded the outstanding result of eliminating terrorism from the nation. He contrasted this expenditure and outcome with the cost of US$ 227 billion and US$ 683 billion incurred by the US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, over the past few years, upto 2009. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, that huge cost of nearly one trillion dollars has still not yielded the anticipated result.
In that context, Mr Cabraal mentioned that the Sri Lankan security establishment could be justifiably proud, because they were able to deliver the result expected, at a very modest cost. He also quipped that only the training cost of the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan amounted to US$ 39 billion, which was more than 6 times the entire cost that our security establishment had incurred for 4 years in its war against terrorism! A further interesting fact is that the cost incurred by Sri Lanka included the entire cost of aircrafts, ships, tanks, ammunition, other equipment, salaries, training, food and uniforms for soldiers, etc, while the contrasting figure in the US was only for their training expenses! He pointed out this example when he was speaking about the need to carefully assess the concept of "value for money" in relation to all investments and costs, which is essential if the best value is to be obtained for the money spent by any institution.
The Symposium was attended by over 300 Finance Company Directors, and the programme included presentations by Mr Manil Jayasinghe of Ernst & Young, Mr Reyaz Mihular of KPMG. Mr P Samarasiri, Assistant Governor and Mr H M Ekanayake, Additional Director of Department of Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions also participated and made presentations.