During a recent trip back to Myanmar, I met with many players in the emerging innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem there, and on one occasion I was fortunate to visit the new Yangon Innovation Centre (YIC). The YIC is a compelling example of how a local government can provide the most useful asset it has at … Continue reading Using Space to Spur Innovation in Yangon

There is plenty of speculation and scenario-building around what the impact of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak will be for the global economy. Here’s my own, albeit quick, take. Unlike when the SARS (SARS-CoV) epidemic struck the world, China is now much more integrated with the global economy and this will make the economic fallout of … Continue reading Coronavirus and ...

At the launch of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s Monetary Policy Roadmap for 2020 yesterday, the new Governor has said in his speech that Sri Lankan banks should finance startups more and be less risk-averse. According news coverage by Economynext, the Governor has said: “I urge Sri Lanka’s banking sector to rethink its credit … Continue reading Should Banks ...

The Australian media are reporting that a Chinese spy has defected to Australia and has offered (to ASIO – the Aussie signals and intelligence service) to reveal a trove of unprecedented inside intelligence on “how China conducts its interference operations abroad”. How this pans out in the coming weeks will be perhaps the most crucial test … Continue reading Trade Wars ...

This article originally appears in the Daily FT of Tuesday 13th August. Aindrie Kuruppu and Dilki Wijeyesekera contributed to this article. Often dubbed ‘the world’s factory’, China has recently been experiencing a shifting of manufacturing investment out of the country. A combination of the steady rise in wage costs in the industrial hubs of Southern China, … Continue reading As Manufacturing ...

This article originally appears in the Daily FT of Monday 3rd June 2019, and can be accessed here. The latest edition of the Lowy Institute’s ‘Asia Power Index’ provides an insightful picture of the power dynamics shaping the Asia-Pacific region, with many interesting takeaways for Sri Lankan political leaders, bureaucrats and businesses. One of the … Continue reading Asia Power ...

Despite the vast economic heterogeneity across the continent, African countries have come together to forge the world’s largest free trade agreement. Below is a quick summary of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) that has just come into effect yesterday (Thursday 30th May). The AfCFTA is now the largest ‘free trade area’ by population … Continue reading Africa Has ...

According to the latest Labour Force Survey Annual Bulletin for 2018, the number of those in employment in Sri Lanka declined by nearly 0.2 million last year, compared to the year before. Here’s a brief summary of the main findings from the report. Looking Back at 2018 The number of people of working age employed … Continue reading Employment Dips ...

For decades now, no currency has been more widely used than the US dollar. And because of this dominance, the US has long enjoyed what former French President Valéry Giscard famously described as an “exorbitant privilege.” Benjamin Cohen, Professor at the University of California captures it nicely: “As long as foreigners are hungry for dollars, … Continue reading USD v. ...

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has just released their latest ‘Investment Policy Monitor’ report. Here are some top-line insights relevant for Sri Lanka: 1. 35 countries have taken new national investment policy measures, of which over one-third are new restrictions or regulations. Apparently it is the highest since 2003. Overall, there is a … Continue reading Quick Insights ...

A version of this article originally appears as a ‘Guest Column’ in the DailyFT of Tuesday 9th April 2019, available online here. The current US-China trade frictions and the broader US stance on trade relations with its key partners could trigger a substantial redrawing of supply chains across Asia and the world. This has implications … Continue reading ‘Trade Frictions, ...

In a forthcoming Guest Column for the DailyFT in Sri Lanka, I write about how the US-China trade tensions could trigger a fundamental re-drawing of supply chains in Asia. Yet, there is another re-drawing of supply chains that is likely to happen, and that is due to the new USMCA – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – … Continue reading Trump’s trade ...

It’s the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s trade war and two recent papers by eminent economists have provided the first real estimates of the impact of the protectionist tariffs on the American economy. Both papers find that US consumers are the worst off as a result of the protectionist tariffs, from both reduced … Continue reading First Empirical ...

There is something about this city; a palpable energy of a place that’s on the cusp of something big. I can’t place my finger on it. I don’t understand how this city is how it is, given the country’s political troubles, slowdown in reforms to open up the economy, many business-unfriendly regulations still in place, … Continue reading Myanmar Rising?

Nearly 14 months since it was first announced, a Carbon Tax has been put into effect in Sri Lanka w.e.f. 1st January 2019. The tax first made its appearance in the Budget 2018 speech of the Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera in November 2017. The Finance Minister has announced this week, that the tax would … Continue reading Sri Lanka’s ...

A version of this article first appears on ‘The Prospector’, the blog of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (LKI) https://www.lki.lk/blog/trade-tensions-and-strained-global-cooperation/ . I thank my co-author Aquilah Latiff, my former intern and final-year student at Royal Institute.  —- This September marked the tenth anniversary of the onset of the Global Financial Crisis, and the economic downturn that followed, delivering … Continue reading ‘Trade Tensions ...

During a recent visit to the renowned architecture firm ‘Foster + Partners’ in London (of ‘Gherkin’ building fame), I was struck by how interdisciplinary their team was. And it was a reflection of how interdisciplinary their projects – in 70+ countries – had needed to become, marrying the built environment with concerns around mobility, sustainability, … Continue reading Interdisciplinary Design ...

During a recent visit to Dubai, for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting on Global Future Councils, we visited the Dubai Future Foundation that is at the cutting edge of driving innovation and foresight in the emirate. We were fortunate to have the final group session of our Council (the ‘Global Future Council on Innovation … Continue reading A Meeting ...

We recently launched the ‘Multi Country Consolidation’ initiative in Sri Lanka under a new project by the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation where Sri Lanka is only the second country in Asia to be selected for such project. The aim is to provide a new dimension of competitive advantage for the Colombo Port, which despite … Continue reading The Curionomist ...

The IPS held the ‘Saman Kelegama Memorial Conference’ recently, which had a bunch of thought provoking sessions exploring a number of topics anchored to the theme of ‘post-conflict development’. The session on ‘Smarter Development for Sustaining Peace’, which looked at the strategies Sri Lanka adopted for economic recovery and development, post-war, has been nicely recapped on … Continue reading Have Economists ...