W. A. WijewardenaESCAP Survey of 2011 – Get connected or perish
In the previous My View titled ‘ESCAP Survey of 2011: A Roadmap for the Region,’ I presented ESCAP’s wise counsel for the countries in the region for adopting a holistic approach for economic advancement.
ESCAP Survey of 2011: A road map for the region
The United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, popularly known as ESCAP, released its Survey on the ESCAP Region for 2011 on last Thursday in Colombo. According to ESCAP sources, this is the 61st of such surveys issued by this UN Agency highlighting the challenges faced by the region and the remedial measures to be taken.
Good governance should come from the heart
As reported in the Daily FT of 25 April 2011, five respected business leaders of the country had sat in conversation in a public forum to enlighten the audience of the good boardroom governance principles to be followed by companies (available at: http://www.ft.lk/2011/04/25/corporate-stewardship-and-boardroom-governance/).
The gold rush: Are we seeing the end of paper money?
A gold rush of a different type
The headlines of wire services cried last week: “Gold is at its historical peak.” The event was that gold prices in the international markets had crossed the seemingly impossible peak of US$ 1,500 per fine ounce of the metal.
Now that BRICS formalised, the third world will re-emerge
When Barack Obama was struggling to trim his horrendous budget deficit by $ 4 trillion over the next 12 year period and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or NATO was embroiled in a costly military intervention in Libya, the leaders of five nations calling themselves BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met in summit in Sanya in Hainan Province of Southern China last week.
Inflation warning: Should not ignore anymore
IMF Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Koshy Mathai, is reported to have urged the Central Bank to monitor the current high inflationary trend which he has attributed to ‘supply shocks’ to prevent a secondary inflationary cycle through increases in salaries and wages. He has ruled out the need for raising interest rates to rein in inflation and expressed his confidence in managing excess liquidity to attain the same objective (available at http://www.ft.lk/2011/02/04/happy-imf-wants-happier-sri-lanka/).
A tale of four airports and three airlines
Shock treatment to chaos
Economists normally prescribe a ‘shock treatment’ when a system has gone haywire and does not respond to conventional policy prescriptions.
Exports’ dillemma: complacence is the worst enemy
A headline news item in the Daily FT of 22 March 2011 (available at: http://www.ft.lk/2011/03/22/exports%E2%80%99-dilemma/) reported that Parliamentarian, Harsha de Silva, has drawn the attention of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, at a meeting of the Consultative Committee on Finance, to the declining share of Sri Lanka’s exports as a percentage of the country’s total output or Gross Domestic Product during the last decade.
Don’t cry for Japan: Like the Phoenix, it will rise from ashes
A massive earthquake in the magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale struck offshore Japan on Friday, 11 March, 2011. It caused tsunami waves to rise, as high as 10 metres at an incredible speed of some 800 kilometres per hour, almost equal to the normal speed of a commercial jetliner.
Want to uplift the economy? Follow the 7 wisdoms of Koshy Mathai
In concluding the late K. Sivagananathan Memorial Oration 2011 in Colombo last week, Koshy Mathai, the highly-respected and much-sought-after IMF Resident Rep in Sri Lanka left the audience with seven points of his wisdom to ponder if Sri Lanka is to sustain its current euphoric growth experience.
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