Book review

Winning the economic war

Sri Lanka came out of nearly three decades of war after the armed separatists were defeated by the Government Military Forces in mid 2009. During the time of the war, successive Governments were compelled to allocate a large amount of resources for military operations, and also had to shift their focus of attention to war related matters over and above all other activities, including economic development.

The economic dividend from the war victory was however, slow to materialize due to the global economic crisis manifesting in 2009 and the focus of the Government diverting to both Presidential and general elections in early 2010. But now, with the complete control of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces after the war victory, political consolidation after the overwhelming elections victory and economic take off on the horizon with the global economic recovery, the time has come to put the economy in forefront, catch up with the missed opportunities and reap the economic dividend. This is the starting point of this book titled Winning the economic war.

The author has been associated with newspapers for long years and has been a keen follower of the economic events of the country, with frequent interaction with key policy-makers for media reporting. He has accumulated a wealth of information during these interactions to compile this book.

The outline of the book is interesting as it starts with the basics starting first, with the need for an overall economic development strategy for the purpose of reviving the economy. The author then shows the policies articulated in the Government policy framework: Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dakma, the formation of a special Economic Development Ministry with a dynamic Minister in charge and all other steps taken to gear Sri Lanka to become a 'Wonder of Asia'.

The role of various Ministries and the Parliamentary Opposition in achieving the development goals, is elaborated in the subsequent chapters.

Thereafter, the author highlights the need to reduce the regional disparities - where the bulk of the national income is concentrated in the Western Province, reforming and fine tuning the Government's safety net program - Samurdhi, the need to use modern technology to enhance the living standards of the people and the role of the media in responsible reporting of the true development activities and their shortcomings.

In this process, the author gives special emphasis on invigorating and development of the tourism sector, highlighting the lessons that could be learnt from Australia.

The last chapter documents interviews the author had conducted with key policy-makers of the country, including the Economic Development Minister, the Treasury Secretary and the Central Bank Governor. Books of this nature in the Sinhala language are rare and the author should be congratulated for bringing out such a book, when economic development after the war has captured centre stage in Sri Lanka's contemporary debates. The book is very informative and readable. The book will be a valuable source of reference for development practitioners and journalists and would provide the foundation for further work on the subject matter in the near future.

Dr Saman Kelegama,

Executive Director and Fellow,

Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka