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Presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010 - The Island
My role in drumming up aid and investment flows following war victory Up to now MR’s tenure had marked a commendable level of economic growth. Most countries that come out of long wars enter a period of growth since outlays on the military can be curtailed and capital and manpower can be invested in development projects. Lending agencies and investors too are more inclined to cooperate with a government that had restored peace to the land. Accordingly several highway projects, work on ports and airports, transport and power were undertaken adding to a rapid growth of GDP. At his stage there was little interference in decision making by kinsmen and political favourites which became the bane of MR’s second term leading finally to his defeat in 2015. While my formal appointment was as the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs, PB Jayasundera and Lalith Weeratunga suggested to MR that my services as an interlocutor with international agencies had become necessary. Accordingly I was appointed the Deputy Minister of Finance in addition to the portfolio of Public Administration. MR summoned me to Kandy where he was holding a political meeting and administered the oath of office as his deputy. He then dispatched me the following day to Washington to act on his behalf at IMF meetings. As de facto Minister of International Monetary Cooperation, I worked with the Secretary to the Treasury PB Jayasundera and Governer of the Central Bank Ajit Nivard Cabraal in interacting with the IMF, the World Bank and the ADB. At the same time I joined MR’s delegations on his official trips abroad which were basically attempts to draw much needed funding into the country. Among all these attempts the most important was our request to the IMF for a standby arrangement to the tune of US dollars 2.6 billion. This called for very close interaction with the staffers of the IMF going all the way up to the Director General who at that time was Dominique Strauss Kahn, one-time Minister of Finance of France and a towering personality with strong progressive views. Unfortunately he later got embroiled in a sex scandal and had to retire. We were lucky to have a DG who could stand up to the US which still was hung up with our ethnic war issues. However I must say that the US Treasury officials we negotiated with were professionals who reported favourably about our case. Indeed our economy was not as problematic as that of several other developing countries that they examined. In my...
Gota, Mahinda and Basil among those responsible for economic crisis ...
The Supreme Court today (14) ruled that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa as well as several others are responsible for the country's current economic crisis through their mismanagement of the economy. In a majority decision, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the respondents, who also included ...
Special Data Dissemination Standard - Sri Lanka
For a fuller explanation of the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) and the statistical standards to which Sri Lanka has committed, please click on DSBB Home Page.
Is Sri Lanka's investor call for 'world's emptiest airport' struggling ...
Since opening in 2013, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport has failed to generate enough revenue to cover even its electricity bills.
