Hambantota, District.
Cabinet recently approved the construction of an IT park in Hambantota. I hope it works, but I still think this is a bad idea. IT parks work where they can be close to an educated and engaged workforce. Hambantota has neither schools nor even much population, so this just cannibalizes growth that could be happening in Colombo, or even Kandy or Galle. The main impetus here is that the Rajapaksas are from there, but that also means that the area will neglected when they’re out of power.
This seems to be the problem. The Rajapaksas are thinking like they’re a kingly dynasty and not like they’re temporary custodians of power. Kings back in the day would shift capitals at great expense and often suffering and the people would just deal with it over generations. These moves would often be on personal or astrological whims. This cavalier re-investment of people and resources shouldn’t be taken lightly. In the current case, it’s just kinda dumb.
Sri Lanka’s economy is largely based in the Western Province, in Colombo. It’s seeing high growth in the North Central Province, around Anuradhapura. We have a natural harbor in Trincomallee. If any place needs government-funded, long-term development it’s Jaffna – a move that would engender much goodwill and bring resources and people from abroad. I’m not saying that Hambantota is a bad place to develop, what is? I’m just saying that it’s not the best, and it’s not best for the country.
For more on the Hambantota IT park, check out Gihan Gamos and ReadMe.lk. They cover it pretty well.
My specific comments are that Hambantota is insanely hot for an IT Park, requiring more money. It’s also very far from human capital, requiring people to actually move. It also has trouble with water supply. Furthermore, I don’t think competing with Colombo is the best idea. There are plenty of areas in Colombo that could develop further, especially Colombo North. Sri Lankans cities shouldn’t be competing with each other, we should be allocating resources intelligently to compete with the world.
Jaffna makes sense as traditionally their main resource has always been human capital. Otherwise Colombo or Kandy would be good places. There aren’t enough infrastructures for IT startups in Colombo. Most people end up converting a house into an IT services shop.
Indi, you got guts to say what you have said in the article. I think Jaffna would be a ideal location, having said that politically it won’t be acceptable to the Royal family.
In a lighter vein, as your photograph shows Hambantota is full of Buffaloes!
(did you want us to read between the lines by inserting a photo with buffaloes)
its true that jafna is the most viable place fro such investment, but look at govts point of view..why should it spend money in the north knowing well that it wont turn in to votes for them. Until tamils learn to participate in governance in the center like muslims they would always be isolated. Saying that it is the strategy of the so called tamil leaders since independence, to isolate their people politically by always staying in opposition with confrontational politics thus depriving their people from power..this in turn highlighted as discrimination ….u cant blame the system for it(knowing well how muslims and upcountry tamils benefit from it) rather than blame their communal leaders who seek exclusive powers to ghettos.
During election time, it seemed Gampaha District was to be the site of the IT Park: http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1547340803. In that piece, written in the runup to the 2010 General Election, I discussed the pros and cons of Hambantota and Gampaha.
The only new factor is the Mattala Airport. IF, they can get a decent number of flights to land in Mattala; and IF they can build enough housing for the IT Park workers, who knows, it may work. But when parents are wary about sending their kids to work the shifts at the Colombo BPOs that provide door-to-door transport, will they be happy to pack their kids off to live in dormitories in distant Hambantota?
And, notice the flaw in this line of argument. The investment in Hambantota will not generate job for the people of Hambantota, except perhaps in supplying security, transport, etc. services to the IT Park. We create jobs in Hambantota and ship people from elsewhere to do them. Why?
So Billy, you are justifying that the govt should not invest in North since the people aren’t going to vote for them anyway. This in turn would make the lack of development in the north the community leaders problem since they have not for some reason allowed the govt to become popular there? Your understanding of democracy and governance is amazing indeed. :)
PS: I am not sure how the upcountry Tamils have benefitted. They still probably have the worst living conditions in SL. If anyone benefits, its the politicians!
If Hambantota is full of buffaloes then maybe they should open up a mozzarella park!
I know this sounds like a ‘cheesy’ idea but it would at least employ people from the area and possibly improve the quality of our local pizza.
From one of the links you provided:
Current interests in the IT park: Intel Corporation to set up chip making plant, IBM, 2 Universities (Singapore, India), Tech One Global, Mobitel Lanka call centre, 3000-room apartment complex
If this is really the case, it won’t matter much where the IT park is located within SL. Humans will flow to wherever there is money.
I think the main objection of the the writer and the commenters here to this location is simply that Rajapakses are favouring Hambantota, not its pros and cons.
I’d personally like it more if they located it somewhere else.
I think the concept of an IT park is lost to many authorities in SL. Just because you get a few IT companies to setup shop doesn’t necessarily make it an IT park. We tried that with Malabe and then Maradana (a private establishment) – but it never caught on. The park needs to be able to have very good facilities (uninterrupted and quality power, AC, redundant communication links – both data and voice, around the clock transport and food shops, quality lodging, etc.). In addition to that, a steady stream of skilled labour (ideally from a University in the same region). You have to plan for staff to come from the same region – you cannot expect them to relocate from other regions.
One of the other key areas for success is incentives for employers to setup shop and operate in that area – perhaps tax holidays. But here as well, proper infrastructure at reasonable charges is the key.
what our authorities do not understand is different areas of a country has different competencies. Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna do have a high population. Therefore the resource is people. The HR capital in these locations can be used to a purpose like IT park. The concept of an IT park is good. Even today the majority of IT universities are based in Colombo. With enhanced transportation system these cities would be ideal for that. Colombo is the commercial capital of SL, so nothing wrong in that.
Hambanthota has land area and less population. This makes it ideal for a manufacturing base and oil refinery. SL can invest in sugar plantations, chemical manufacturing plants like Sulphuric, casutic Soda. The newly opened Hambanthota Port could be utilized for that too. Then we can make revenue based on manufacturing. That will make us less dependant on other countries policies as our customers would be business entities in other countries. Building an IT Park in remote Hambanthota is a Bad idea.
The strength in Colombo is its human capital, better infrastructure (in the island). IT parks need them. The strength in Hambanthota is less population and free land. The policies, espicially economic are taken by people who do not have the competencies for that.
I am all for an IT park in Hambanthota as long as it has a big roller coaster and a very tall drop tower.
I’m sure the convenience for the ‘Colombians’ is high as the convenience for Tamils in the Rajapakshe agenda.
This so called IT park will turnout to be another white elephant like the Hambanthota harbour. What a waste of our tax rupees.
Tania, that’s spot on. I couldn’t agree with you more.
im not saying goct should not but what is the drive, and can u blame the govt for racist and tribal stupidity of tamils..as for upcountry tamiul even thought it may not have materialized economically u cant argue that they dont enjoy political power..
all this negative comments seems to assume that sri lanka is colombo and colombo is ri lanka and it should stay the same foe eternity.. …people… there are people in fact the vast majority live out side of colombo…
Which justifies the investment in Hambantota despite all the logistical/infrastructure issues inherent with the location? Is that your point?
my point is there is life out side of colombo..PERIOD!!!!!
If the argument is just because all the resources are concentrated in colombo so lets keep on developing colombo forgetting the rest of the country is just absurd..the whole point of development in hambanthota is to create another center like a colombo..if some body take each project in its isolation then its true they are not viable, but one has to look at the bigger picture and take in to account the whole development going on..just because hambanthota at present doeant have enough population doesnt mean it will not in the future once the infrastructure is there…and mind u this southern development plan was not some thing invented by MR, it was in the pipleine for a long time if im not mistaken.
The argument is not that the areas outside Colombo should not be developed, it is that the correct type of development is required. For example, Hambantota is not ideal for an IT park or really for development that requires high densities of people because of the water supply issue. The wrong type of development is often worse than no development.
again that was my main point…hambathota in its current state may not and thats why the current drive to change the current status and why we have to consider all ongoing projects in hambanthotha as a whole rather than taking them individually.
It does matter, because you have to spend more money in different places.
Hambantota is damn hot and has a poor water supply for a chip making plant, cooling and water will cost money. Hambantota doesn’t have an educated workforce to supply call center staff, so people will have to be paid more to move and housed there.
It’s about making the best use of limited resources, and this isn’t it. And of course Sri Lanka is more than Colombo, we have to find the best development plans for different areas, not dump everything in a random area that the President is from.
Too damn hot? Moe Dalitz built Las Vegas in the middle of the f—ing desert, and that was before air-conditioning was cheap. This is hardly a good argument for anything, except if they want to host Olympics in Hambanthota.
You are forgetting one of the major things written in one of the links you provided:
Current interests in the IT park: Intel Corporation to set up chip making plant, IBM, 2 Universities (Singapore, India), Tech One Global, Mobitel Lanka call centre, 3000-room apartment complex
If this is actually true (and I don’t know whether this is true or not), that means they think that this project has some potential.
All I’m saying is, before you completely dismiss a city, you at least have to do a real feasibility study, instead of dismissing it because it’s too hot, or because people in that area are farmers without any idea whatsoever about computers. This is not something you can guess. You could make educated guesses if similar projects have been attempted in Hambanthota and all of them failed because of something inherent to the city itself that can ruin this project too.
You can’t do a real feasibility study on blog. But before you completely dismiss a city, you should have at least considered the Pros as well, not just Cons. You’ve written the article as if there’s not even one Pro. Well, what about land prices? Malabe vs Hambanthota for example.
What you and the commenters here do is very easy to explain.
1. You don’t like Rajapakses that much.
2. You don’t like he favours his family and his home town.
3. You learn that he is going to favour his home time once again by making an IT park there.
4. You don’t like it due to number 2.
5. So you try to find good reasons other than 2 to justify 4.
6. The result is a reality bad pseudo-feasibility study.
I too would like it if they make the IT park somewhere else. But it’s important to keep track of what your real objection is. You won’t have written this blog post if they were building the IT park in, say, Polonnaruwa.
“Too damn hot? Moe Dalitz built Las Vegas in the middle of the f—ing desert, and that was before air-conditioning was cheap. This is hardly a good argument for anything, except if they want to host Olympics in Hambanthota.”
Please tell me you’re kidding?
When I’m kidding, there’d be no doubt in your mind that I am kidding. For example it’d be something like “realist is a genius.”
In case your problem is that I singled out Moe Dalitz, that’s just for poetic effect. No single man built that city. What matters is where they built it.
Actually my problem is that you think that Las Vegas is a good development. Astonishing lack of knowledge on your part…well maybe not that astonishing going off your track record.
In what sense is it a bad development? Is it because gambling and sex is amoral? Even if you think they are amoral, that’s hardly the point. The point is, they built a city that generates a lot of money in the middle of a desert. It’s damn hot there, but that doesn’t stop people from going there.
Realist, since you have nothing to contribute to this forum, other than talking nonsense about someone’s comments (just like in another thread your sole contribution to the forum was pointing out a grammar mistake), I recommend you to shut up. I won’t reply to you on this thread again. People like you, who make useless, pointless remarks on a consistent basis, seriously harm the quality of this otherwise very high quality blog.
And before you object to it too, since that’s the sort of thing you do, you can replace amoral with immoral if you seriously think they are immoral.
You think the reason why Vegas is a bad development is because of morality? You’re a nitwit. Think about it a bit more, especially in the context of the above discussion, it might dawn on you (or perhaps not). I’ll even give you a hint, you are made up of 60% of it (with the balance I presume being shit).
Simple force them to relcoate
Okay. I was determined not to reply to you. But the temptation to crush you like a cockroach is too much to handle.
I’m not going to guess what you think about Las Vegas with your excuse for a brain. But let’s think again how and why I brought up Las Vegas;
1. Indi said Hambanthota was a bad idea because it was too damn hot
2. I thought a place being too hot doesn’t prevent people from going to a place and working there.
3. So I brought up Las Vegas, which is a city in the middle of desert.
4. People who built Las Vegas were after money. They wanted to make money.
5. They did make money
6. Why did they make money? Because people didn’t give a damn about the temperature. They came and gambled. Many people stayed there and worked.
7. It proves my point that people don’t give damn about how hot it is if there is money in it.
Now genius, where am showing an astonishing lack of knowledge? Why is Las Vegas a bad example in this context.
A major factor in a feasibility study (which I believe you said is important somewhere above) is sustainability. Short term profit is fine but it doesn’t make any sense for the country if foreign investors come in, profit for a relatively short time and then exit once the investment becomes unsustainable.
Las Vegas is a good development for the casino owners (and supporting industries) in the short term because they can make and have made a lot of money. For the American government and public, whose tax dollars will be co-opted to clean up the environmental mess (such as the issues with Lake Mead becoming exhausted), it is less so. If you want to do feasibility studies then I’m afraid you have to look at the big picture and long term sustainability. In this perspective Vegas fails as a development.
So the point that Indi brought up about Hambantota’s climate is very relevant. Unfortunately you can’t see past the adjective hot to realize that Hambantota is also dry. This coupled with the fact that our rainfall patterns have changed with the clearing of the majority of our watershed forests means that arid areas like Hambantota will become drier. So you have a two fold problem, first with water supply to the inhabitants and secondly with electricity supply since our traditional hydro systems are being compromised. Las Vegas is facing some of those issues now, less than a hundred years after it ‘took off.’
Interesting read here: http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=876
If being a moron by your standards means that learning from other people’s mistakes is better than making your own mistakes, then by all means, I accept the label.
Because Las Vegas is in America a country where laws work as opposed to Sri Lanka which is a sham democracy?
During the World Cup in 2011 I was there at Hambantota as an ICC employee and I can tell you it was pretty bad. The closest hotel to the stadium is 2 hours away, there isn’t any infrastructure at all and pretty much 90% of the journalists traveled from Colombo. Those officials who stayed in Hambantota had problems with water at the hotel.
Also when the people rioted at the main gate the President ordered the gates opened and non-ticket holders just flooded in. It pissed off the ICC officials but hey, what are you going to do right?
If the rule of law isn’t enforced then companies like Microsoft will up and leave or not bother investing at all.
I agree that the rest of the island needs to develop but just because you build something doesn’t mean people are going to flock to it.
If you really want to develop this WHOLE island and not just Colombo invest in good schools, good roads, power infrastructure, universities, water collection and distribution, hospitals, manpower training, public transport, etc.
Building a cricket stadium, airport and IT Park in the middle of nowhere doesn’t help anyone.
Also Sharanga when was the last time you went to Hambantota?
Also why does everyone compare Singapore and USA to SL? We can’t do what they do because we need our basics sorted out first. First walk, then run…
Sharanga trying to crush a cockroach, and finding it too much to handle.
http://www.comicvine.com/rastapopoulos/29-37979/images/
If being a moron by your standards means that learning from other people’s mistakes is better than making your own mistakes, then by all means, I accept the label.
Nope. By being a moron I mean making statements like the one above.
Now, in my comment there was only one sentence about Las Vegas. Now I’m going to repeat this again, in order to compensate for the small size of your cranium. I only wrote one sentence about Las Vegas.
Now, why did I write that sentence? Because Indi thought Hambanthota was too damn hot and that makes Hambanthota unsuitable. By saying that Hambanthota is too damn hot, he didn’t mean anything other than the fact that Hambanthota is too damn hot. He didn’t mean it was dry too. He mentioned that point separately when he talked about water supply.
So, here I am, writing one sentence about Las Vegas as response to someone saying that Hambanthota is too hot. Just one sentence. What does our resident moron thinks?
He thinks, by that one sentence, I also mean that Las Vegas is good for the American public, that it is environment friendly, and that since Las Vegas overcame a damn lot of problems that I care not to think about, Hambanthota will also be able to do just that.
And the moron deduced all this from one sentence I said about Las Vegas as a response to a guy saying Hambathota is too damn hot.
See, that’s the sort of thing that makes me call people morons, moron.
shammi, I’m sure he’ll say he was only talking about the temperature :D.
@shammi
So you think realist is a cockroach? Thanks.
By the way, what’s with your friend Dodo? He has mysteriously disappeared in the middle of a debate.
Here’s my theory. He’s in an underground location, eating pork and drinking beer, unshaven for a month, trying to formulate a Quantum Mechanical interpretation that actually makes his arguments sane. After doing that, he will have to convince the majority of the science community that his interpretation is true, because that is part his argument. He may also have to write a Wikipedia page on the subject because most popular QM interpretation according to him. Maybe you can help him with that.
Anyway,if you have any way to contact him, let him know that it is his turn to reply to me
http://indi.ca/2012/10/about-last-night-the-t20-world-cup-final-photos/
No. I think it should be clear to anyone with even a pea sized brain, what I thought.
Thanks for giving me a thrill by bringing up Dodo. It looked to me like he quietly made his point and exited, and left you to wallow in your verbal diarrhea, though I’ll never know or care about the subject. It’s touching to see how much you’ve been thinking about him, to draw such a detailed mental picture. Aneh…..
No, but it should be clear to anyone with even a pea-sized brain, what I thought.
Thanks for giving me a little thrill by bringing up Dodo. I thought he quietly made his point and exited, leaving you to wallow in your usual verbal diarrhea. It’s so touching to see how much you’ve been thinking about him, to draw such a detailed mental picture. Aneh……….
@shammi,
Yeah sure. And I suppose vanishing completely after his quiet exit is part of that plan.
Unless he’s dead, or a similar great tragedy befell him, he’s just waiting for me to forget the whole deal so that when he comes back I won’t mention our Quantum debate and ask him to reply. That’s unlikely to happen.
**
Thanks again for thinking realist is a cockroach.
@Shammi – see what I told you? 5 paragraphs to try and dig himself out of that hole. You do wonder why he didn’t bring up the other issues when he said the following:
“In what sense is it a bad development? Is it because gambling and sex is amoral? Even if you think they are amoral, that’s hardly the point. The point is, they built a city that generates a lot of money in the middle of a desert. ”
Keep on rolling Sharanga, you are nothing if not amusing. :)
Agree. Agree. Agree.
He may be giving you a respite out of pity and charity, while you face Realist, armed with your brain smaller than a pea.
Reply to Sharanga
The Club of Morons is buzzing. There’s Realist, the grammar moron, who can deduce 276 words about rain patterns, irrigation, investments, electricity supply and whatnot about both Las Vegas and Hambanthota from one line one guy wrote about Las Vegas in response to another guy who said Hambanthota is just too damn hot.
Then there’s Shammi, known as dodo’s sidekick, who claims she can amazingly arrive at right answers without thinking about the problem at all, as if she was on planet Kolob.
Only one missing is my favourite moron, the way of the dodo, using whom I’m planning to build a 98% accurate truth-generating machine by sticking a NOT gate into his brain. Apparently his moronic Copenhagen-consistent histories collapse interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which is believed by the majority of physics community, and yet amazingly doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, has collapsed the guy himself. All that is left of him is his loyal sidekick, who is still desperately defending the moron.
First there was Tonto. Then Robin. Sharanga thinks I’m next! O00000
Poor Sharanga with his rearguard action, 5 comments, talk of feasibility studies, morality, etc and he has to hide in one sentence. Politics is probably the best career choice for you Shari, no brains needed but blinkers mandatory.
And you can be my spokesman when I want to tell something to morons who can be persuaded only by downright moronic reasoning.
I mentioned morality only to guess what you might be thinking about Las Vegas. I was wrong. Apparently, the thought patterns of a moron is just too goddamn dumb for me to guess.
I mentioned feasibility studies (studies that use real statistics) only in respect to Hambanthota. It not even remotely related to anything I said here about Las Vegas.
So why don’t you cut the crap and admit what your real objection is? You have been totally humiliated by me in the previous threads. You’ve been going out of your where just to insult me. As I’ve previously said countless times, that’s just loser behaviour.
But insulting me isn’t enough because no matter how well you do it, the fact that I’m right and you, the grammar moron, was totally humiliated doesn’t change. So you’ve been looking for a way to get back. When I said “Too damn hot? Moe Dalitz built Las Vegas in the middle of the f—ing desert, and that was before air-conditioning was cheap”, you thought you had an opportunity. You imagined a lot of things about what I might be implying about Las Vegas, like its rain patterns, electricity, irrigation etc. Except, grammar moron, read what I said again. I said “oo damn hot? Moe Dalitz built Las Vegas in the middle of the f—ing desert, and that was before air-conditioning was cheap”. Does that sound like I’m talking about rain patterns, grammar moron? Maybe it does. Maybe that’s just how a moron’s brain works.
So, now we have you, the grammar moron, who thought he had been given an opportunity to get back at me for humiliating your dumbness to no end, when there was no such opportunity. Now we get the moron talking about morality, which is something I said long after my original comment only to guess what the moron was thinking. Seriously, aren’t you the dumbest person on earth or what?
Hah. Whatever. I’ve spent enough time crushing a dumb cockroach.
And he keeps coming back for more :)
the big point here is that our tax money is being used. Most people don’t realise they are being taxed and pay taxes because they don’t pay it directly as income tax. When you start understanding that its your money being used for unjustified projects you’ll learn to appreciate the injustices better. If you still don’t then I’ll have to learn to live with more morons than I’d care to comment.