Soros-funded, 3-year economic development plan for Sri Lanka
View(s):The Sri Lankan government, in the face of serious economic issues, is to present a three year economic development plan next month with the assistance of a team of local economic experts, senior officials and Harvard University academics, official source revealed. Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros and the Open Society Foundation is funding this effort. Ricardo Hausman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development is heading a team of experts attached to Harvard University to advise the government in their economic development strategy. A senior government official told the Business Times that Mr. Soros will set up an office
…in Colombo with links to his foundation to steer the government’s efforts towards social inclusion and sustainability and find short and long term solutions for burning economic issues. Government revenue has been waning as a percentage of the GDP over the last decade while the exports have been declining as a percentage of the GDP. In addition, Sri Lanka is heading towards a Balance of Payment (BoP) crisis owing to reduction of exports and the heavy cash outflows resulted due to the rapidly increasing foreign commercial borrowings
The government’s economic development plan aims at finding ways to encourage businesses and distribute wealth evenly across the population as the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorest of the poor in the country, the official said. The development plan will direct Sri Lanka towards the establishment of a solid foundation to achieve long-term growth through sound monetary and fiscal policy. Those well-designed and well-implemented policies addressing risks could open new opportunities for “sustained and inclusive” long-term growth as Sri Lanka aimed to move from a middle-income country to high-income, the official pointed out.