Before We Move On

9:45 PM (c) on September 10

…

We’re anyway franchising outward.

In many ways that is easier.

But then we build something internationally valuable and cannot confer upon our own island even the smallest amount of help.

I don’t want that.

Countries survive because somebody decides to back their own builders.

If Mr. Wijesinghe — after the BOI, investment banking, PPPs, property, hospitality, entrepreneurship and decades of actually trying to attract investment into this country — doesn’t document what he knows, I can only predict that most other people won’t either.

And then every other publisher can make the same calculation we can:

good luck with the IMF; next.

We are close to aborting these attempts, documenting what happened, and moving outward by the end of next month.

The worst that can happen if we fail is that there is effectively zero US-based publishing support for Sri Lanka coming from what we build.

The best that can happen is the exact opposite: we prove there are valuable Sri Lankan stories, people, businesses and intellectual property here, and give more American firms a reason to look seriously at Sri Lanka.

That is why I picked Mr. Wijesinghe.

And I don’t want him to misunderstand the $300 either.

If he wants us to do the first part for free, we’ll do it for free.

Forget the $300.

Sit with me. Tell me what actually happened.

What worked?

What failed?

Who wanted to invest?

Why did people leave?

What did the Government get wrong?

What did investors get wrong?

What happened to him?