President to inaugurate Economic Association Annual Session

The Sri Lanka Economic Association celebrates its 30th anniversary at the Annual Sessions which will take place on 30 and 31 October.

For this Annual Session, SLEA has once again chosen a theme of topical interest, ‘Policy Reforms for Sustained High Growth’. President Maithripala Sirisena will be the Chief Guest at the inauguration on the sessions.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva will deliver the keynote address on the occasion.

Four technical sessions will be held on 31 October: On Domestic Resources and Increasing Debt, Productivity and Competitiveness, Enabling Environment and Foreign Direct Investment and Institutional and Regulatory Framework.

At the technical sessions eminent economists and important stakeholders will examine each sub theme systematically.  Dr. Saman Kelegama will make a presentation on debt financed investments; Dr. Harsha Athurupana will speak on education reforms for development.

Prof. Ajith de Alwis and Dr. Ganeshamoorthy will respectively present papers on Innovation and Technology and Policy Reforms and Incentives for Trade. Prof. Siri Hettige and W.A. Wijewardena will speak on political stability and social integration and good governance and political leadership respectively. Effective public institutions and regulatory framework under the broad sub theme of institutional and regulatory framework will be respectively addressed by Damitha Kumarasinghe and Dr. Bandula Perera.

There will be three papers from Prof. Yoshitaka Kawagoshi, Prof. Shiro Takeda and Prof. Hitoshi Osaka representing three universities in Japan, presenting Japan’s experience relating to the key sub themes of the Annual Sessions.