High-level Cross-Cutting Insights for Sri Lanka
Themes driving Sri Lanka's Economic Revival
Key Themes for Consideration
FOCUS ON ENERGY SECURITY
Sri Lanka has a policy target of achieving 70%
renewable energy by 2030. The foreign
exchange shortage has highlighted the
dependence of the country on imported fossil
fuels and the need to accelerate investment
into renewable energy either through solar,
wind and indigenous sources like bio-fuels.
INCLUSIVITY AND FOCUS ON
COMMUNITIES
While the focus is on the macro picture, it is
also important to focus on the micro-economy
and the role it can play in driving the economy.
It is important to understand focus areas and
investments that can help communities and
regions in the country to find new jobs,
increase household income, reduce
dependency on imports while reducing
wastage as much as possible. Focus on jobs
and income creation for women in both an
urban and rural context is also important.
FOCUS ON FOOD SECURITY
UNICEF's April 2022 national survey showed
that 70% of households have reduced their
food consumption. Agriculture is a sector
which accounts for 7.3% of GDP, comprising
21.8% of Goods Exports and employing 27%
of the Labor Force.
ROLE OF EXPORTS IN DRIVING
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Despite multiple crises, Sri Lanka's
merchandise exports have been resilient
in the last 18-24 months with a 14%
growth in the first half of 2022 compared
to the same period in 2021. To ensure this
growth momentum sustains, Sri Lanka will
need to look at diversifying its export
basket while looking at enablers that can
catalyse export growth.
FOCUS ON HEALTHCARE
Sri Lanka has primarily a state-funded
healthcare system and achieved great progress
on many indicators relative to the South Asian
region. However, the country is seeing an
increase in the rate of Non-Communicable
Diseases and with 51% of the total health
spending financed out of pocket, investment in
healthcare will be required both from a human
capacity perspective and learning from the
pandemic, improving on the manufacturing
aspect.
ALIGNMENT TO THE GREEN TAXONOMY
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka in May 2022
launched the Sri Lanka Green Finance
Taxonomy following the Roadmap for
Sustainable Finance launched in 2019.View entire presentation