2017 was a good year for investors. A benchmark of global stocks rose almost 22 percent during the year, registering its strongest gain since 2009’s rebound-from-recession, while global investment grade bonds rose more than 7 percent, marking t

Madeleine Albright, one of several scholar–statespersons the unique American spoils system used to produce as Secretary of State, characterised the United States as ‘the indispensable power’. In relation to East Asia today, that des

I first met D. Eassuwaren at the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka in 1993 and since then, up to his demise a few days ago, I had been associating him very closely. 

A knitting factory in Bangladesh brings together the past, present and future. On one floor, workers knit by hand. On another, people and machines do the work together. And on a third floor, there are only robots.

In the business of banking, there will be inflows of resources (i) deposits under various schemes, (ii) borrowings, (iii) raising capital/bonds and so on as part of resource mobilization. 

Many employers in the country unlike before want more funding and more attention toward vocational education and training. This is in line with many of the surveys internationally that suggest that a shift would have widespread employer support, give

The old economic order is dead but India and China must take the lead to preserve its successes. Eighteen years ago, as the millennium drew to a close, the annual ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle in the US was dera

January 8, 2018 will mark three years since Maithripala Sirisena was elected as the Sri Lankan President, after defecting from the cabinet of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

The word globalization has lost its relevance and lustre with the emergence of the new global economy of the 21st century. In fact, it’s become an anachronism.

Shared economy or gig economy, a concept endorsed by millennials, briefly means sharing with others what we do not use or have in excess. This model has spanned more widely than the prominent Uber and Airbnb among the millennials, who are slammed to

The US Federal Reserve met market expectations when it raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 1.25 percent-1.5 percent at its December Federal Open Market Committee meeting. It will likely raise the rate three more time

Sri Lankan real estate is going through a positive phase of transition in the process of development.  It is gradually moving to become a more organized one. This has largely been possible due to the entry of international real estate players an

Just ahead of this year’s anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, I visited the Tsunami Honganji Vihara site in Sri Lanka where upwards of 2,000 people died when their train was destroyed by the force of the waves. 

The Centre for Global and Strategic Studies (CGSS) organised an Interactive Session on ‘Strategic Environment of South Asia/Indian Ocean Region: Sri Lankan Perspective’. Pathfinder Foundation Centre for Indo-Lanka Relations Director Admir

REUTERS: China is lavishing vast amounts of aid on a small Pakistani fishing town to win over locals and build a commercial deep-water port that the United States and India suspect may also one day serve the Chinese navy.

Harbour Village (Pvt.) Ltd, a joint venture between  construction giants, Access Engineering PLC, China Harbour Engineering Company Lanka Ltd  (fully-owned subsidiary of China Harbour Engineering Company, Beijing China) and Singaporean reta

The global workplace is evolving and women are the next emerging market in the world (Ernst and Young, 2013).

From the first email sent in 1971 to the celebration of 10 years of the iPhone, today we all live in the fourth industrial revolution. Many nations need to compete with different sets of strengths and sophistication. 

Robots will take over our jobs, disrupt our industries and erode our competitiveness. Such were commonly expressed fears about advances in automation, artificial intelligence and 3D printing – key representations of exponential technologies &nd

Many stories doing the rounds on the internet a few weeks ago said the beginning of the end for the current regime is underway.

The importance for a country of having reliable power supply cannot be over-emphasised. Energy supports industrialisation, especially through small and medium-sized enterprises that are crucial to sustaining poverty reduction. Energy also gives peopl

Reading a few articles written last few weeks on how liberalisation will bring down the freight rates benefiting exporter, I was rather surprised of the little knowledge the authors of these articles possess about shipping and logistics.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is back on the global economic radar. Its 11th Ministerial Conference (MC-11) – the highest decision-making body that meets every two years – will convene in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from December 10 to

This paper attempts to analyse the tea export revenues of Sri Lanka, value addition by tea exporters, comparative tea production between Sri Lanka and Kenya and Colombo and Mombasa auction prices. The purpose is to critically evaluate the performance

He was RY to me. My little daughter (whom he was very fond of) used to call him ‘YR’. The corporate world knew him as Rajan and at Hayleys, everybody called him Mr. Yatawara. 

Machine learning will be a defining technology of 2018, doing more to change how we live and work than any technology since the Internet.

China’s Belt and Road (B&R) initiative is an ambitious undertaking that has the potential to reshape the global economy and transform world trade.

Pundits and journalists have often argued that Chinese loans are expensive and harmful to recipient countries. But they fundamentally misunderstand how Chinese aid and investment works across different countries.

Sri Lanka’s plantations industry contributes almost 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). 

Roads or schools? It’s a question akin to the ‘guns or butter’ choice that governments around the world confronted in the 20th century: How to spend a nation’s finite resources to produce the maximum benefit for its people.