International media have come to focus on Tuesday’s anticipated decision in the Philippines’ arbitration against China. 

I am delighted to be invited to deliver the keynote address at this prestigious symposium and also excited to learn about the research findings that will be unveiled at the technical sessions to follow. 

One has to admit that Sri Lanka’s chicken growers aren’t spring chicken at all. Within a single generation, they have made chicken the most readily available and economical source of non-plant protein in Sri Lanka, whereas it used to be c

The world around us is increasingly moving forward with regional and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) as the multilateral trade liberalization process led by the WTO has come to a standstill.  

At present, trade in services accounts for more than 25 percent of global trade. As the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations have come to a standstill, most countries attempt to engage in more services trade via regional and bilateral free tra

There is a growing perception that the monetary policy is losing its power to solve the world’s economic problems. This may be misleading. What is probably true is that incremental policy easing is experiencing diminishing – and, possibly

The branding of Pure Ceylon cinnamon and promoting it in global markets was a masterstroke in giving the spice the pride of place it deserves, alongside another celebrated Pure Ceylon-branded and globally famous product - tea. Apart from clearly dist

Virtually every Asian academic, business leader, policymaker or taxi driver I have encountered in the last six months has, within minutes, pummelled me for answers to the Trump question.

The first quarter of the Sri Lankan tea industry wasn’t as resilient as in the same period in 2015. However, the industry could recover some of its lost momentum in the second half of this year due to shifts in global politics in addition to oi

What are the key milestones achieved during the last financial year? Commercial Bank once again affirmed its status as the largest private bank in Sri Lanka in 2015. Solid growth was achieved across all business lines and the asset base was further s

In May 2015, the standard rate of value-added tax (VAT) jumped from 12 percent to 15 percent. The Sri Lankan economy will thus have to adjust to this higher rate but what are some of the possible macroeconomic consequences? everjobs spoke to Universi

For about nearly a decade the people saw the nation being steered forward by a set of vision statements proudly owned by our former president and chanted like a prayer by his officials.

Be it the current, the previous, or the regimes before that, Sri Lanka has always aspired to do great thing. The island nation certainly does not fall short in thinking big and conceptualising ambitious goals but what could be highlighted as a possib

Making the best use of a free trade agreement (FTA) by penetrating another market needs skills and foresight. Sri Lankan entrepreneurs with such endowments have made their mark in India.  But entrepreneurs who rely on a protectionist umbrella wi

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam As far as one can remember, losses are what followed SriLankan Airlines. Keen on changing its fate, the unity government after much deliberation has now decided to hunt for a suitable partner for the airline, which is currently n

The world economy’s operating system is being rewritten.  In this exclusive excerpt from the new book No Ordinary Disruption, its authors explain the trends reshaping the world and why leaders must adjust to a new reality.

In an increasingly fragile, interconnected world, where humanitarian and development needs are a burden on budgets, cooperation is a buzzword. The scale of the challenges facing humanity, and the scope of ambitions to leave no one behind under the ne

Recent decades have witnessed a growing trend towards regional economic integration. As of February 2016, some 625 notifications of regional trade agreements had been received by the WTO and of these, 419 were in force. But South Asia is still laggin

Elected officials and selected bureaucrats are given a huge amount of power to act on behalf of the public – modern democracies function on this basis: that citizens hand over their power to elected representatives. But how can the citizens the

In the current debate on India-Sri Lanka trade, it is often said that the trade deficit between India and Sri Lanka has widened over the years in India’s favour and thus India is the major beneficiary of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement

Sri Laka’s former pro-Chinese ‘strongman’ President Mahinda Rajapaksa was voted out of office in January 2015.

Ask any audience to raise their hands, if they support the renewed thrust for railways in Sri Lanka to be electrified and modernized; all of them are most likely to raise both their hands.

The steady state in the Asian region is growth and dynamism that requires continuous structural change and adjustment. 

CNBC: Situated almost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, there is no escaping Sri Lanka’s centrality. The country lies just a few nautical miles away from the super-busy east-west shipping route, through which an estimated 60,000 ships pass eve

After years of talks, negotiators concluded an agreement on the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in October 2015. Since China is excluded from the TPP, one would expect antagonism rather than symbiosis between the Washington-advocated trade pac

The Obama administration has never plainly acknowledged that it faces a major challenge from China to the US-led order in Asia, and it has therefore never clearly explained its strategy to deal with that challenge. Because it has never been clearly e

In the recent past several articles have been published in the local press with regard to the objections by Bangladesh to Sri Lanka’s claim of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from its coast baseline made to the United Nations Co

Good governance activist and former Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Chandra Jayaratne has requested the Monetary Board of Sri Lanka information pertaining to the treasury bond issues carried out by the Central Bank this year.

Growth was marginally lower in 2015 while the current account deficit improved slightly and inflation moderated. Meanwhile, the budget deficit widened and foreign exchange reserves dropped sharply.  The government will have to work to realign fi

Sri Lanka has been known all over the world for its tea, rubber, coconut and as of late for its apparel and information communication technology (ICT). But due to the grim global situation and increased competitor activity, the country’s export