Country has to be agile

World Bank willing to increase lending:

Exploit growing opportunities:

Sri Lanka has to be fast, flexible and agile to be able to exploit ever growing opportunities in a fast changing world. World Bank Group’s Managing Director, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala speaking at the Central Bank on ‘Becoming the wonder of Asia’ said that it needs strong partnerships and nurturing a sense of ownership by all Sri Lnkans in the growth process.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

She emphasized that Sri Lanka has what it takes to be the Wonder of Asia and decisively tackle issues of poverty reduction and economic growth acceleration. The World Bank is willing to increase its lending envelope and will scale-up knowledge services to help Sri Lanka’s ambitious development plan.
Referring to investments she said that policies to improve the level of investment and policies to improve the productivity of those investments will be important as such policies can be directed at spurring physical and human capital to work more efficiently together.
This calls for strong innovation policies. This may mean better management practices or simply getting into new areas of production or export.
Iweala said that effective changes can lead to impressive results. Better management practices are one of a number of actions that can be taken to imitate and assimilate existing knowledge.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one well-known channel that can help spur a wide transfer of knowledge.
She said that importing knowledge through more FDIs will boost the economy’s productive potential, but it is the global market place that will provide the demand necessary to fulfil that potential.
She insisted that skills of today may not be the ‘right’ for tomorrow and therefore sustained investments in education and training is a must for Sri Lanka to gain and maintain a competitive edge in global markets. In addition to improving university education, technical and vocational training institutes will also play an important role to develop the core skills that workers will require to effectively take advantage of opportunities in both the domestic and global markets.
She also mentioned the importance of macroeconomic stability, skills development, and implementing policies that promote the inclusion of all segments of society in the growth process.
Courtesy - Daily News - By Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI