The Pathfinder Foundation presented President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with a report containing a set of action-oriented recommendations from an eminent persons study group aimed at steering Sri Lanka into a post-COVID-19 era of economic recovery.
The group suggested that Sri Lanka’s overall focus of economic policy should be on mitigating the hardship of the people, moving towards restoring economic stability in the short-run and improving the investment climate for business.
In practical terms, this means improving food security and livelihoods by modernizing agricultural systems and well-targeted social protection. It also means doing whatever it takes to find the monies for debt payments and financing social welfare. Furthermore, it means cutting red tape and promoting digitization of public services to allow the private sector to diversify and to create jobs. Finally, it means better institutional coordination for implementing economic policies and development projects.
The study group was chaired by Pathfinder Senior Fellow and former Central Bank Governor, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy. Dr. Sisira Pinnawala, Department of Sociology University of Peradeniya, and Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja, Executive Director of the Lakshsman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, served as the principal authors for this initiative.
Other members of the study group, included twenty leaders from academia, research and the private sector, including Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Dr. Sujata Gamage, Dr. Dileni Guawardena, Prof. Ariyaratne Herath, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Prof. Mallika Pinnawala, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Krishan Balendra, Nimal Cooke, Sheran Fernando, Diren Hallock, Jiang Houliang,. Murtaza Jafferjee, Mohamed Mushin, Ashroff Omar, Arun Pathak, Suren Ratwatte, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Mangala Boyagoda, M H Jamaldeen, Ahilan Kadirgamar, Dr. Nilanga SamarasingheRajendra Theagarajah and Mohamed Mushin.
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