The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis are evolving rapidly in scope and severity. Hence, Sri Lanka needs to have a better understanding of what is happening and have to re- strategies and move away from the mistakes of the past, to achieve self-sustenance in a new post-COVID-19 world, Kishu Gomes, a well-known business leader said.

“Once this is settled, it is going to be a new world and new economy and people have to think fresh and come up with strategies where you will be safe guarded from these global impacts. Looking for cheap goods and services elsewhere is not the right strategy going forward. You got to have the basic 'needs and wants' available within your country. And in terms of the supply chain, rather than depending on a single country the entire world was depending on China. It is always good in your supply chain strategy not to be over dependent on one country but look at many other sources rather than one single source for your inputs,” Gomes expressed these sentiments during a live discussion on Ada Derana First At 9.

"Hence, there are a number of lessons that you can learn and what is important is to read the situation as you encounter and take learning out of it and use those learning to basically reformulate your strategies,"  he added.

Meanwhile,  Gomes noted that Sri Lanka's tourism industry is continuing to face turbulence amid increasing event and flight cancellations spurred by the growing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it will take some time for the industry to bounce back stronger after the COVID-19 crisis, he added.

“We have been getting about $ 4.5 billion out of the tourism industry. Third largest generator of all the countries. However, now it has gone down to zero. And we cannot think of the tourism industry bouncing back for next 6 months. Even if the current issue is dealt, it will at least take 6 months for the tourism industry to fully recover.  Prior to this incident the target was going up to $ 5 billion just in one year and over the next three years to go up to approximately $ 7 dollars. So when everything is settled we have to refresh our strategy and ensure that we still chase these revenue targets," he said.

Meanwhile, in terms of food supply; Sri Lanka should be more independent from rest of the world, Gomes stressed.

“I guess comparing to some other countries we are better. I think we need to accept that fact. But then obviously we have to revive, refresh and regrow some of the industries that have been neglecting in the past. So in terms of food we have been depending on supply from other countries. I don’t think in the future we should depend on basic food supply from rest of the world. We import salt. We import dry fish. So these are fundamental mistake that we have done in the past and this situation has basically open the eyes of the stakeholders of our country to think differently and do what it takes to be insulated from some of these global impacts,” he said.