Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
Thursday, 25 September 2025 05:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
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Labour Minister and Economic Development Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando — Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
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Labour Minister and Economic Development Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando yesterday said capital market reforms will be central to raising investments and driving Sri Lanka’s next growth phase.
Speaking at the launch of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “12 Pillars, One Vision” program to transform the capital market, Dr. Fernando said stabilisation alone would not deliver sustainable growth.
“The next take-off is nothing but investment. Without investment, we can’t expect growth,” he told the gathering, stressing the importance of quality capital formation.
The Minister noted that domestic savings are scattered and fragmented, limiting their impact on development.
“Scattered, insignificant capital cannot make a big push for economic development. We need to pull them together, and the stock market is the platform for that,” he said, calling the capital market “a public duty” that channels savings into productive investment.
Fernando urged regulators and market participants to reduce barriers to entry and dispel myths that markets are only for large investors.
Bringing grassroots savers into listed markets, he argued, would broaden participation, improve liquidity, and strengthen efficiency. “If you really want robust capital formation and exponential growth, we need to bring them together to the capital market and close the gaps,” he said.
On regulation, Fernando said the Government sees itself as a facilitator rather than an overseer. “Our Government would not politicise the capital market. We want to create a level playing field so investors can assess and allocate capital based on fundamentals,” he said. He added that market efficiency, transparency of information, and technology-driven disclosure were critical to investor confidence.
The SEC’s 12 Pillars initiative sets out a roadmap of projects aimed at modernising the market infrastructure, widening participation, and creating new instruments for capital raising. Officials said the reforms are designed to align investor protection with growth, positioning Sri Lanka’s market to attract both domestic and foreign capital.
