In this issue

Why it’s hard to reduce informality in the labour market

Informal workers get a bad deal. They earn no pensions and get paid half as much as public sector employees do in Sri Lanka. As we discuss in our cover story, wages are low because informal sector firms are less productive than formal ones. They are also smaller, don’t have access to capital as easily, and stay on the sidelines to avoid catching the eye of officialdom.

Simplifying taxes itself is not known to attract informal firms out of the shadows. If regulations are burdensome, particularly if a small company must pay high pension contributions and severance costs should it run into financial trouble in the future, a small business owner may decide to employ fewer people.

In Sri Lanka, 70% of jobs are in the informal sector. Besides employment, this has wide implications for the economy too. A large informal sector is associated with low growth, low pay and poor-quality jobs. Informal firms pay measly wages and the jobs are tenuous. They also dodge both income and sales taxes.

What has been missing is political ambition. To reduce informality and allow small businesses to flourish requires a more equal deployment of public resources (including for social protection when people lose their job), flexible labour laws, and simpler tax and business regulations.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.