UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Una Mc Cauley yesterday highlighted that Sri Lanka needs to adopt coherent regulations to achieve sustainable development goals within the stipulated time period.
She expressed these views speaking at a workshop on Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), organized by the Consumer Affairs Authority of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The main objective of the workshop is to help Sri Lankan policymakers make informed decisions based on a cost benefit analysis of various regulations and their likely impact in society.
Cauley noted that this initiative would assist Sri Lanka to strengthen its ability to manage governance in an effective way.
“Sometimes regulations are outdated, sometimes there are no regulations or regulations are weak.”
It is important to periodically examine these regulations, and to correct them to make sure that these regulations produce intended objectives for what they have been issued and should produce results making the best use of available resources. Poor regulations increase the cost and decrease the economic development, ultimately creating complex situations.Regulation is not just important for your work, it is necessarily important for the broader development of the country. Lack of coherent regulations will create unintended results.This means that intended benefits are not realized. Regulations need to be designed in such a way to achieve set targets in the economy as well as the society.”
Regulatory quality refers to the way regulations are conceived and made. It implies the design and the implementation of regulations in a way that effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and accountability are ensured, Cauley pointed out.
According to Cauley, transparency, regulations should incorporate the views of stakeholders and be prepared in an open way and regulations should be accountable for their regulatory decisions.
“Regulations has a direct impact on the way economy and the society operate ; regulations are necessary as they are essential for consumers and environment protection to reduce risk and to ensure a fair level play in the economy. But they need to be proportionate, otherwise that create important distortions that can affect innovation, competition, competitiveness, trade.”
She pointed out the necessity to regulate exhibiting regulations to create much needed benefits for economic and social development of the country.
Delivering the welcome speech at the workshop, Consumer Affairs Authority Chairman Hasitha Tillekeratne also noted that regulations plays an essential role in consumer protection, curtail pollution, prevent abuse, ensure safe food and protect public health .
They are crucial in promoting corporate interests as well as to preventing consumer exploitation.
The purpose of regulation is to provide protection, either to individuals, organizations and the environment protection, safety or health in the home or work poo lace or consumption of goods and services, regulations can have far reaching effects.
“In the current dynamic market environment, regulatory agencies face challenges in managing markets effectively. Some regulations don’t bring expected results due to various reasons and this is a cost to the economy .Therefore it is high time that all key regulatory agencies get together and review whether the regulations are effective to get expected economic and social benefits to the country.”
Consumer International (CI) has announced the theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2018 as, “making digital market places fairer”, as a member organization of the consumer international, the Consumer Affairs Authority will be working this year to introduce measure to safeguard the digital consumers who will be using online marketing in their day today life, Tillekeratne noted that we have proposed new areas for the CAA Act, such as proud liability, product recall, and unfair terms in consumer contracts , online marketing of digital contents.
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