A recent headline in a Sri Lankan weekly newspaper titled “Tamil Nadu  Exports Fish Robbed from Sri Lanka” prompted me to highlight the legal  implications  of such activity generally referred to as IUU (Illegal Unreported

The Sri Lanka Tourism Strategy for the period 2011 to 2016, launched in November 2011, aims to welcome 2.5 million arrivals by 2016. Not much is known on how the goal of reaching 2.5 million arrivals is to be achieved.

Immediate action must be taken to narrow the US $ 2.4 billion gap in Sino-Lanka trade, according...

Despite impressive performance in access to education, issues of quality of education, access to higher levels of education and relevance of education has challenged the education sector in the recent past.

Sri Lanka is more popular than ever as a tourist destination, meaning there is an urgent need for more well-trained and qualified managers. A bitter civil war from 1983 to 2009 affected tourism in Sri Lanka resulting in low demand, low prices and a

The graphite mining industry in Sri Lanka dates back to 200 years with its boom periods during the First and Second World Wars when approximately 35,000 metric tons of natural graphite per annum, were exported. During this period, nearly 6000 shallow

It has been reported by The Wall Street Journal that is it the Southeast Asian region that the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) is embarking on an ambitious initiative to draw up a plan for the rubber industry, much like what the Roundtable on

“Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds—and so is ‘economic inequality’, says writer Chrystia Freeland, in an impassioned talk, she charts the rise of a new class of plutocrats

REUTERS - India’s Central Bank governor Raghuram Rajan may raise policy rates again after shocking markets by increasing them in only his first meeting, signaling he is willing to risk prolonging what is already the lowest economic gr

For the first time in history of the pageant, Nina Davuluri, an Indian-American won the Miss America crown. In an age when beauty contests are scorned at by feminists as degrading, the news somehow sparked a fierce Internet discussion.

The Sri Lankan rubber products manufacturing industry is composed of about 4,530 manufacturing organizations of small, medium and large-scale entities. Nearly 70-80 percent of the local rubber production is used by these domestic industries.

Is media and press freedom a matter of economics? The answer is a resounding yes. But it may be important to explain why. There are at least three reasons. We can describe them as indicative, instrumental and integral.

I can still remember the fanfare when the first few iPhones came along - I wasn’t even an Apple...

With the end of hostiles, a golden opportunity was missed by the Sri Lankan tourism sector by hiking prices of accommodation by 200-300 percent, forgetting the ordinary hotelier in the process.

Finding and marrying the right partner, as we all know, is relevant for every aspect of life. Whether career...

Vasan Eye Care Hospital, the world’s largest network of eye care hospitals that comes under the wings of India’s flagship Vasan Healthcare Group commenced operations in Sri Lanka this year, bringing the next-generation of super-specialisa

Back when the Internet was not around and entrepreneurship did not garner the same level of respect it does today, a traditional climb up the ladder was the expected path – for women and men.

Post-war Sri Lanka has been looking prosperous (with high GDP growth numbers) because it was throwing a grand party for itself; first by the public on imported consumer goods, then by the state on construction materials.

In its fascination with all things China, much of the world seems to have overlooked one of the great trading opportunities of the post-crisis global economy: The potential of Southeast Asia. 

The recent Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises Summit in Madang had job creation and growth as its worthy goal. Although Papua New Guinea (PNG) has grown rapidly over the past decade, this has not translated into jobs in the non-resource sector and u

Over the years, women have come closer to perfecting the art of having it all. Yet, we are told time and...

It could be upsetting to find that the hotel you’ve made a reservation with, has sold your room to ‘someone else’, as Linda and Michael Morgan found out in 2010.

For all the controversy around it, the breathtaking scope of India’s food security scheme for nearly two-thirds of the population sends a powerful message across developing Asia.

International long-term private finance to developing countries has changed dramatically in the wake of the global financial crisis. Caught in “post-crisis blues”, as my World Bank colleagues Jeff Chelsky,

Recently a training workshop was held in Colombo under the auspices of the International Rubber Research...

Sri Lankan enterprises – especially SMEs use a comparatively high level of bank borrowings to fund investments. This is partly due to low level of domestic savings and inefficiency in the capital market. 

A century ago, their tribe, engaged in less complicated businesses than power-packed takeovers, was known as robber barons. Today, the billionaires whom Wall Street admires for their ability to generate money on money, are apparently fanged with take

Sri Lanka has high trade deficits. And, instead of shrinking, they are increasing over the years. The current government policy, based on import substitution, will not be able to solve this serious problem.

By Jarkko Turunen A year ago, we were very concerned about lingering weakness in the U.S. housing market, which we saw as a major obstacle to the economic recovery. But what a difference a year makes! As our latest report on the U.S. econ

After the disastrous consequences of the anti-export-bias and import substitution polices, Sri Lanka, since 1978, has implemented many strategies and programmes to promote export oriented industries and agriculture. Nevertheless the country’s e