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Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Tuesday, 17 January 2017 00:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
EDB Chairperson and Chief Executive Indira Malwatte with Director of Harvard’s Centre for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School, Prof. Ricardo Hausmann (right), and Prof. Robert Z. Lawrence, Professor of International Trade and Investment
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) is collaborating with the Harvard Center for International Development on a project to identify and rapidly catalyse new or emerging export sectors and enlarge Sri Lanka’s export basket.
The initiative is being held under the guidance of the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) and the Board of Investment (BOI).
On the request of State Minister of International Trade, Sujeewa Senasinghe, last week a meeting with Prof. Ricardo Hausmann, Director of Harvard’s Centre for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School, and Prof. Robert Z. Lawrence, Professor of International Trade and Investment, was held by the EDB.
They shared their experience on international trade with the executives of the BOI and EDB and other interested stakeholders.
A special implementation team from EDB has been formed with the mandate of analysing potential export sectors, identifying blockages and problems and then rapidly resolving these to enable new exports to develop. The team works autonomously and iteratively but receives support and guidance from professors and staff from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as they progress.
The EDB team is one of five such teams formed from within the Sri Lankan Government and working with Harvard, all focused on issues relating to exports and FDI.
The teams implement their projects while participating in an intensive six-month training program designed to teach methods of effective implementation. This process is time-intensive and requires significant commitment from teams, but it facilitates successful projects as well as significant ‘learning by doing’.
In addition to the export diversification team, EDB is also represented on the team working on identifying strategic sectors for Sri Lanka to target.
