Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Oration 2016

Thursday, 10 November 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Oration 2016 will be held on Friday, 11 November at 4 p.m. at the Senate Room, University of Peradeniya. The oration will be delivered by Dr. Ranee Jayamaha, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, on the topic, ‘World Financial Crises and Challenges to the Governance Structures of Central Banks’.

Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera was Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics and Political Science of the then University of Ceylon. He succeeded Prof. Das Gupta to become the second occupant of the Chair (and the first Sri Lankan) in the Department in 1961. He also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Peradeniya (1963-1969) and later on as Secretary, Ministry of Planning (1970-1977) under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. He was a much respected academic and public servant. A large number of his students have made outstanding contributions to both academic and public life in Sri Lanka and overseas.

Dr. Ranee Jayamaha has more than 45 years of experience in the banking and finance field, of which nearly 38 years were spent at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. During her tenure at the CBSL, she also served as Secretary to the Presidential Commission on Finance and Banking, Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Special Advisor (Economic) to the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, Advisor on Payment Systems to the Central Banks of Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Iran and the Maldives, Member of the Global Payments Group of the World Bank among other national and international positions.

At the point of retirement from CBSL, in 2009, she served as the Deputy Governor in charge of Financial Systems Stability. She currently serves as Lead Consultant on South Asia to the World Bank Group. She has more than 30 national and international publications to her credit, with her latest book being ‘The Money Pipeline – a Pillar of Financial Stability’. She holds a B.A. (Honours) in Economics (specialising in Money & Banking) from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Stirling, UK, and a Ph.D. in Monetary Economics from the University of Bradford, UK.

The oration will examine the reforms needed to the governance structures of central banks to deal with potential threats associated with world financial crises. Many advanced countries have already taken numerous initiatives but South Asia lags far behind.

The oration is organised jointly by the Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Peradeniya and the Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Trust Fund. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to [email protected] (Lakshika) or 081-2392622 (Eranga).