World Bank willing to increase lending:
‘Country has to be agile’
Exploit growing opportunities:
Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI
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. |