Sri Lanka’s deputy Minister of State Enterprise Development said that internationally exposed management skills of local expatriates are the need of the hour if the island nation is to achieve its expected economic targets in the near future.

“Everyone only talks of capital and technology but in my experience it is management that is needed more; management which has been exposed internationally.” Eran Wickramaratne, deputy Minister, State Enterprise Development said.

“Nearly 300,000 nationals leave for greener pastures every year and seven percent of them are professionals,”

However, he says with the introduction of dual citizenship and the simplification of the tax system we hope that we can make them come back.

The Minister was speaking to an audience of expats and recent returnees at the Work-In-Sri Lanka (WISL) conference 2015 in Colombo, Tuesday.

“We need the country’s educated professionals to steer the ship,” Wickramaratne said.

“If the economy does not deliver, the political changes will unravel and we have some tough decisions to make in the future.”

A key factor that helped countries such as Singapore transform from poor countries to well-performing nations was that they ensured education and qualifications were primary criteria for C level jobs and important government positions.

“We need internationally exposed management to make it a Singapore,” the Minister stressed.