Lessons from Sri Lanka's Debt and Economic Crisis
by Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja, Senior Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute, London
Moderator: Distinguished Professor Dato' Dr. Rajah Rasiah, Executive Director, AEI
29 August 2022 (Monday) • 10am MYT
Venue: Auditorium, Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya
Honouring Dato Seri Kulasegaran Sabaratnam earlier
Organisers
Asia-Europe Institute (AEI), Universiti Malaya
Federation of Malaysian Sri Lankan Associations (FOMSO)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Universiti Malaya
For a country that was predicted by Walt Rostow in the 1960s in a handful of countries to achieve rapid growth and structural change among the developing economies, Sri Lanka has had a tumultuous post-independence experience, especially since the ethnic crisis exploded in the1980s. While many had expected the country to re-emerge as a rapid developer following the end of the ethnic civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, that expectation has now become a phantasm as the country’s economy has now collapsed with massive debt, spiraling inflation, and the masses thrust with an uncertain future. This talk seeks to unlock the causes and consequences of the crisis with a focus on its political economy origins.
Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja is a Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute in London. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore. He holds visiting appointments as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries in New Delhi and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo. Dr Wignaraja is an international development expert, policy advisor and researcher. He has held senior roles in international organizations (including the Director of Research at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, Chief Programme Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC), government-linked institutions (including Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies in Colombo and a Member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka) and the private sector (including Global Head of Trade and Competitiveness at Maxwell Stamp PLC in London). Covering a broad span of specialization in macroeconomic analysis, trade and regional integration, foreign aid and infrastructure, and the Sustainable Development Goals, he has published 20 books on these topics and successfully led teams to deliver complex projects for aid agencies and governments in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. He holds a DPhil in Economics from Oxford University and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
9:30 am: Arrival of Guests & Registration
10:00 am: Welcoming address
10:05 am: Honouring Dato Seri Kulasegaran Sabaratnam for his contribution to the Malaysian Sri Lankan community by the FASS
10:15 am: Lecture by Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja
11:00 am: Comments & discussion by the moderator
11:30 am: Q&A
12:00 pm: End of session followed by refreshments
Last Update: 29/08/2022