Episodes
Sri Lanka's state-owned ventures dominate the market landscape in several key areas of the economy. Now that the economy is in a crisis, the spotlight is on these government ventures, many of which are losing money. In this interview with Echelon’s Shamindra Kulamannage, Thilan Wijesinghe, a Former Chairman of the BOI and of the National Agency for Public-Private Partnerships, and Daniel Alphonsus an Economist and Former Advisor to the Ministry of Finance discuss how the government may...
Published 07/27/22
Published 07/27/22
The Romanian government established a closed-ended investment fund, Fondul Proprietatea, in 2005 to take over and manage the assets of expropriated state-owned enterprises. Fondul Proprietatea's objective is to maximize shareholder returns. In an interview with Echelon's Shamindra Kulamannage, Marius Dan, from Fondul Proprietatea discusses Romania's experience with the investment fund, how success is measured and what Sri Lanka can learn from the experience. U.S based investment firm Franklin...
Published 07/26/22
The former deputy governor of the central bank Dr W A Wijewardena had an illustrious career at the bank. Since then he has become one of Sri Lanka's popular economic commentators. In this interview with Echelon’s Shamindra Kulamannage, Dr Wijewardena, discusses central bank independence and whether Sri Lanka needs a currency board for a stable economy.
Published 07/19/22
Steve H. Hanke is Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and a proponent of currency boards as a way to reign in irresponsible sovereigns. He is responsible for designing and implementing currency boards in Estonia (1992), Lithuania (1994), Bulgaria (1997), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997). Shamindra Kulamannage interviewed him for Echelon.
Published 07/12/22
Unwinding MMT. In this episode former central bank deputy governor Dr W A Wijewardena and University of Colombo economics Professor Sirimal Abeyratne discuss how Sri Lanka might go about unwinding the failed attempt at prosperity by printing money. They were interviewed by Advocata Institute’s Chief Operations Officer Dhananatha Fernando.
Published 07/04/22
In this episode Advocata Institute’s Chairman Murtaza Jafferjee discusses government spending, state owned enterprises and asks why Sri Lanka’s army is bigger than that of the UK
Published 06/28/22
In this episode Advocata Institute’s Chairman Murtaza Jafferjee discusses Sri Lanka’s 2022 tax regime, its recent changes and what else needs fixing so it can help lead Sri Lanka out of the economic crisis
Published 06/21/22