In Depth back to UNI In Depth home page 10/02/2002 UNI Solidarity Statement with Ceylon Bank Employees Union UNI says no to privatisation On behalf of our 15 million members in 150 nations UNI expresses its solidarity with the Ceylon Bank Employees Union in their campaign to protect the public services provision of financial services to the Sri Lankan people. The privatisation of the People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon is mistaken. UNI is aware that the Government has been put under unfair pressure by the IMF and World Bank to seek the privatisation of these two key banks. This is not the first time that such mistakes have been made. Today in Argentina we have a savage and profound economic crisis. This is due in no small part to the insistence by the IMF and World Bank to privatise the publicly owned Argentinean banks. The consequence of this has been poorer financial services to people in the rural areas, a drying up of investment funds for small and medium sized enterprises and a focus on rich markets for wealthy private clients. The result has been a strangulation of economic opportunity and a body blow to the national economy. The Sri Lankan Government should learn from this experience and recognise that the two banks can play an important role in economic regeneration over the long term as publicly owned institutions. The occasion has come to rethink this strategy and to invite the CBEU into the review process. We support the campaign of the CBEU we are prepared to take this campaign directly to the IMF and World Bank. Privatisation is no panacea, the focus on shareholder value and short term gain comes at a tremendous cost to jobs, the people who rely on banking services and to the economic future of the nation. ______________________ Union Network International http://www.union-network.org - contact@union-network.org