By Sunimalee Madurawala, Research Officer - IPSThis article is the first in a two part series in lieu of World Health Day - 7th April 2011, from the Health Economic Policy Unit of the IPSClimate Change is one of the burning issues being discussed extensively at the national and global level. A few decades ago, climate change ...
By Anushka Wijesinha, Research Officer - IPS The IPS is collaborating with The Asia Foundation on their Local Economic Governance (LEG) project. This blog post captures some initial insights emerging from the ongoing field work.After being shackled by the conflict for decades, enterprises in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka have had little chance to grow, and are ...
Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director – IPS, delivered the Dr. N.M. Perera’s 106th Birth Anniversary Memorial Lecture at the Dr. N.M. Perera Centre on the 6th of June 2011.(This synopsis appears exclusively in the Daily FT of Friday 10th June 2011. This article is not to be reproduced)
IPS research staff held an in-house discussion last week on the various proposals forwarded by the Budget 2011. This is the second in a series of posts containing some preliminary observations of the IPS researchers, and discusses the proposed tax changes in the telecommunications sector.20% Telecommunications LevyThe Budget 2011 has proposed to “combine taxes applicabl
IPS research staff held an in-house discussion last week on the various proposals forwarded by the Budget 2011. This is the first in a series of posts containing some preliminary observations of the IPS researchers, and discusses the proposed reforms in social security.The need to provide old age income security to all (at present, only ...
By Chandana Karunaratne, Research Assistant - IPSThe world economy is in for a tumultuous 2012. The euro zone is going through a turbulent period as it seeks a sustainable solution to its sovereign debt crisis, and analysts forecast a rather dismal GDP growth rate of 1.8% for the USA in 2012.1 The decline of these two economic powerhouses is likely ...
By Anushka Wijesinha, Research Economist – IPSMinistry of Finance has delivered, now time for SME-mandated government institutions to sharpen their focus and address the vital issues Budget 2012 is clearly the most SME-friendly budget in recent years. A comprehensive set of tax and financial proposals, specifically intended to strengthen and develop the SME sector have been put forward in the ...
By Devangi Perera and Anushka Wijesinha – IPS Striving for the growth and competitiveness of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector in Sri Lanka has often been identified as imperative in order to provide more employment, bridge regional growth disparities, and ensure that post-war growth is inclusive and widespread. However, as highlighted in previous ...
By Samanthi Bandara, Research Officer - IPSIn this second article marking World Health Day (7th April), Samanthi Bandara of the Health Economic Policy Unit of the IPS argues that as Sri Lanka grapples with emerging health challenges, like changing lifestyles with income growth, the rise of non-communicable diseases and an ageing population, health care financing policy needs a thorough rethink. ...
Dr. Parakrama Samaratunga, Research Fellow – IPSThe Budget 2012 presented last month touches on agriculture at several points. However, the proposal to establish “four rice export zones” stands out as the most provocative, in an economic sense, amongst all of them. Sri Lanka has just achieved near self-sufficiency in rice. But the rice sector, including both production and consumption, is ...
By Anushka Wijesinha (Research Economist) and Burhanudheen Thassim (Project Intern) - IPSIndian middle-class consumption set to be 3rd highest globally by 2020Sri Lanka currently exports only 5.6% of its total exports to IndiaForbes Magazine’s Rich List reports that India is home to 50 Dollar Billionaires, with 2 in the Top 10. Most people associate India’s ‘wealthy’ with the well-known names ...
article will be online soon...(if you have read the version that appeared in today's Island newspaper and have any comments or questions, please leave them in the comments field available below)
By Anushka Wijesinha, Research Officer - IPSLabour pains have blighted Chinese and Bangladeshi manufacturing in the past month, leading to questions arising on the sustainability of their economies’ low-cost labour status.In the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, over 15,000 garment factory workers that make Western branded clothes blocked key roads in the latest in a string of protests demanding ...
By Manoj Tibbotuwawa, Research Officer - IPSCredit Sanjeewa SiriwardanaThe second article in the “Fiscal Imperatives” series deals with another contentious transfer programme, the fertilizer subsidy. In 2009, the fertilizer subsidy accounted for 3% of total government expenditure and 0.6% of GDP. At present, the subsidy is given out without any targeting mechanism and a large proportion of ...
By Anushka Wijesinha, Dharshani Premaratne, Devangi Perera and Harini Weerasekera The global economy is transitioning from a ‘bounce back’ phase of recovery into a slower but apparently sustainable period of growth. According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update (January 2011) and the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects (GEP) Report 2011, global GDP is projected to grow at a ...
Environmental Challenges in the Indian Ocean RegionBy Kanchana Wickramasinghe, Research Officer - IPSThe Indian Ocean rim region, home to around one-third of the world’s population, possesses a significant strategic economic value. Nearly half the world’s container traffic and 70% of the total traffic of petroleum products is accounted for by the Indian Ocean. 60,000
The following interview with Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director – IPS, appeared in the Business Times on 21st November 2010. http://sundaytimes.lk/101121/BusinessTimes/bt10.html A few days before President Mahinda Rajapaksa presents the 2011 national budget (takes place tomorrow), Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka and Member of the Presidential Taxation Commission, spoke to the Business Times ...
The IPS research staff held an in-house discussion last week on the various proposals forwarded by the Budget 2011. This is the third in the series of posts containing some preliminary observations of the IPS researchers, and discusses the proposed improvements to school and university education.Many of the proposals are decisive steps in the right ...
