Bye Bye Beijing: Your lessons are with me

I was born in 1961, which happened to be in Sri Lanka. Suppose my birth happened in China in that year. In that case, it is quite unlikely that my trajectory would have been to be a vegetarian. In 1961, China was suffering from one of the worst famines a country has ever suffered -three years of great famine. In such an environment, you do not have the luxury of exercising choices. As I leave after a three-month stay, I have experienced a China that to me is seen as plentiful, productive, powerful, and purposeful.

- By Prof. Ajith de Alwis

I had the opportunity to travel widely and meet researchers, academicians, and industrialists. Of course, my interest was in science and technology, and my singular observation is how connected the growth of China has been to its reliance on science, technology, and education. Of course, the acceleration of China happened after the opening up of its economy was done in the China way. Believe, however, the mindset of people and the work ethos, irrespective of open or closed system, played a dominant role in shaping China to be what it is today.

Sticking to the knitting

The decision-making, as well as sticking to the knitting, perhaps, is the secret of China's success. I had the opportunity to present on industrial estate developments in China in the presence of a pioneer in this area from Korea (Prof. Parks) at CARES. Tracing the history, I pointed out that Sri Lanka had the first industrial estate in the region way back in 1957 (actually two estates, one at Ekala Jaela and the other at Ratmalana), and this effort was way ahead of both China and Korea. We had a near-perfect institutional setting with research centres, venture fund system (DFCC Bank), and a State Industrial Estate Development Corporation. Well, we know how they have progressed, while both China and Korea, very much late comers now, owe a significant percentage of their GDP to the contribution from industrial estates.

Another interesting thought crossed my mind when I was in Shenzhen. This is the place where China first experimented with the open economy transformation, and they declared this area a Special Economic Zone. They were seeing Hong Kong and its differences on the other side of the Pearle River. China started the transformation of Shenzhen in 1980, and it was at the same time as Katunayake was developed as a Free Trade Zone. China opted to use the Special Economic Zone, as I indicated earlier, as they opened up with their own way.