Pathfinder Foundation expert group’s post-COVID economy revival report given to Govt.

The Pathfinder Foundation recently presented its series of recommendations compiled by a group of experts towards ‘A new economic vision for post-COVID-19 Sri Lanka’ to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Special Envoy of the President and Task Force on Economic Revival and Poverty Alleviation Chairman Basil Rajapaksa.

The expert group suggested that Sri Lanka’s overall focus of economic policy should be on mitigating the hardship of the people, moving towards restoring economic stability in the short run and improving the investment climate for business. 

In practical terms, this means improving food security and livelihoods by modernising agricultural systems and well-targeted social protection. It also means doing whatever it takes to find the monies for debt payments and financing social welfare. 

Furthermore, it means cutting red tape and promoting digitisation of public services to allow the private sector to diversify and to create jobs. Finally, it means better institutional coordination for implementing economic policies and development projects. 

The study group was chaired by Pathfinder Senior Fellow and former Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy. Dr. Sisira Pinnawala from Department of Sociology of the University of Peradeniya, and Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies Executive Director Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja served as the principal authors for this initiative.

Other members of the study group included 20 leaders from academia, research and the private sector, including Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Dr. Sujata Gamage, Dr. Dileni Guawardena, Prof. Ariyaratne Herath, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Prof. Mallika Pinnawala, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Krishan Balendra, Nimal Cooke, Sheran Fernando, Diren Hallock, Jiang Houliang, Murtaza Jafferjee, Mohamed Mushin, Ashroff Omar, Arun Pathak, Suren Ratwatte and Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya.