Sugath Kulatunga It is good to hear that the courts have recognized the right of information on the names of members of Parliament who have declared their assets. Some time back before the Right of Information law was introduced, the civil society organization CIMOGG made a similar request to the then Speaker who did not […]

Sugath Kulatunga The rapid development of South Korea from a backward nation whose per capita income was less than that of Ceylon in 1960 to a modern developed nation with a per capita income of US$ 42500 is considered an economic miracle. Do we have any lessons of experience to learn from that sensational achievement […]

 Sugath Kulatunga The obnoxious 13th Amendment to the Constitution has surfaced again with the announcement by the President that 13A should be fully implemented, which also implies the remerger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. His argument is that the provisions on police and land powers have been in the Constitution for the last 37 […]

Sugath Kulatunga India is using the carrot and the stick formula to insist on the pound of flesh of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lanka Constitution. Big brother turned good samaritan has again raised their persistent demand for the full Implementation of the 13th Amendment. It is noted that India does not now invoke […]

Sugath Kulatunga The year of the Rabbit has brought Sri Lanka the good news of the two-year moratorium proposed by China on debt repayment. This should be acceptable to all creditors and Sri Lanka. We cannot expect haircuts or of debt cancelation in the present global economic downturn. If SL can achieve the levels of […]

Sugath Kulatunga The worst form of tanha is bala thanha the craving for power. Today the deafening baying of the opposition in the name of democracy is nothing but the craving for power. The government is equally strident for the retention of power. This dogfight for power has disregarded the present plight of the nation […]

Ruchir Sharma Ruchir Sharma is an investor, author, fund manager and columnist for the Financial Times. He is the Chairman of Rockefeller International, and was an emerging markets investor at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He is considered one of the best 10 global thinkers of the day. His recent book The 10 Rules of Successful […]

Sugath Kulatunga Sri Lanka is not a poor country but a poorly managed country. According to the list by Credit Suisse published in 2022 pertaining to Total Wealth of Countries and reported by Wikipedia the value of total assets of Sri Laka was 400 Billion US dollars and the country is placed 57 out of […]

Sugath Kulatunga Minister Kanchana Wijesekera insists on a CEB tariff hike in January of about 60% to 65%. Already there has been a steep increase of the electricity tariff and the proposed increase above the present increase will heap more burdens on the consumer who is finding it difficult to make ends meet. One cannot […]

Sugath Kulatunga A witty decoding of the acronym NATO is ‘’no action talk only’. In our country there is not even talk on some critical and palpable issues which are writ large. A few weeks back a think tank of the Peradeniya University pointed out that with an expected annualised export income of $ 16.3 […]

Sugath Kulatunga The Sinhalese nation has made a series of political and strategic lapses which have influenced the fate of this nation throughout history. This note is to roughly indicate them, and hope historians fill up the details. For strategic reasons valid at the time, all our capitals other than Kotte, were located away from […]

Sugath Kulatunga Bribery is one of the most vicious, repulsive and destructive features of our society. It is a subject which should receive the attention of all citizens in the country. It should be not only investigated but researched to identify its roots which might help in confronting it. It is a challenge for social […]

Sugath Kulatunga A few days back the President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that new laws are expected to be introduced in the future to ensure food security. The President also emphasized the need to obtain accurate data in establishing food security and the nutritional status of the people and stressed that there have been disparities in […]

Sugath Kulatunga A few days back Derana TV in their Rebuild Lanka program had a very interesting episode on investment promotion. It was very positive. The contrast presented between the Singapore procedure and that of Sri Lanka was revealing. That discussion made me give some thought to the subject. In the beginning, the GCEC made […]

Sugath Kulatunga 1.     Bring narcoterrorism under Terrorism Act. Colonial powers have used drugs and alcohol to weaken cultures and economies of countries throughout history. The use of opium to weaken China was a good example. In a more subtle way Arrack was used by the British to attack the culture of Buddhism in Ceylon. It […]

Sugath Kulatunga Now, ex-Finance Minister BR has also threatened to bring in new regulations against exporters who default on repatriation of the full amount of export proceeds. Here again, the proposal is confined to exports only and confined to getting back the full amount of the export value as declared. It is not about trade […]

Sugath Kulatunga In early 1980 the GCEC was getting many visitors to learn about the experience of the new investment promotion zone. One of those visitors was a Chinese official who at that time was vice-chairman and concurrently secretary-general of the State Administration Commission on Import and Export Affairs and the State Administration Commission on […]

Sugath Kulatunga This is a season for scapegoating. Aragalaya blames Gota for all the ills in the economy and called for his resignation and demanded that both Gota and MR must go. Later they added Ranil to the list of expulsions. Maithree swears that only an all-party govt can find a solution. Minister Wijedasa thinks […]

Sugath Kulatunga There is plenty of discourse on updating and modernizing our bullock cart age systems of administration. The laws of the land are one area that has received attention recently and the previous Minister of Justice did revise a few of the antique provisions in some of the statutes. Unfortunately, the law governing the […]

Sugath Kulatunga It is reported that the President has invited all party leaders to discuss after the ongoing Budget debate, the problems of minorities. This discussion is likely to focus on devolution of power where the Tamil parties will demand a federal constitution. In fact, TNA MP Sumanthiran who is a prime mover for a […]

Sugath Kulatunga The current topic of interest is the dress of a female teacher. I am reminded of Sunil Shantha’s lilting song mihikatha nalawala where he salutes the village school teacher the ‘Hela guru liya” with the words- Sudu hela sariya andala hada kota inga wata rali lelawa. He was probably referring to the Kandyan […]

Sugath Kulatunga Rather than adopt export-led development and aim at a healthy balance of trade and payments and provide productive employment, all past governments resorted to devaluation and prolific borrowing as the remedy. The outcome of the multiple devaluations and IMF prescriptions has been negative as far as the trade balance is concerned. The LKR […]

Sugath Kulatunga The edifice of a democratic government rests on three pillars the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. In Sri Lanka, there had been as many as 21 changes in the Constitution dealing with the powers of the executive and legislature. There were heated debates and profuse analyses on the issues involved in these […]

Sugath Kulatunga A National Council has been established within the Parliament consisting of 35 members representing all political parties with the objective of a)     Determine priorities on guidelines for the formulation of National short-, medium- and long-term policies. b)    To reach a consensus on a common minimum short-, medium- and long-term program to stabilize the […]

Sugath Kulatunga. During the last few months, we had the crude shock of so many cases before higher courts getting dismissed due to technical errors in the filing of the case. The most recent and appalling one was the CBSL Bond case which could not be continued as it was apparently filed under a wrong […]

Sugath Kulatunga The two-fold objective of a devaluation exercise is to stimulate exports and reduce imports. For exports to increase it depends on elasticity of supply and demand. At the time of devaluation in 1977 our exports were mainly Tea, rubber and coconut products which made up of around 70 percent of the export value. […]

Sugath Kulatunga Courtesy Sugath Kulatunga FB page. The two-fold objective of a devaluation exercise is to stimulate exports and reduce imports. For exports to increase it depends on elasticity of supply and demand. At the time of devaluation in 1977 our exports were mainly Tea, rubber and coconut products which made up of around 70 […]

Sugath Kulatunga.(1) Today we see a revolution in longevity. The percentage of old people in the total population is growing steadily. In this background, all over the world, increasing attention has been focused on old people. Ageing is being considered only as a factor of social differentiation and not one of social discrimination.  The Madrid […]

Sugath Kulatunga Sri Lanka tends to decline the advice of local professionals but accept unreservedly opinions and recommendations of particularly organizations like the World Bank and IMF. But there are instances when even credible and convincing opinions from them have been ignored by our obdurate policy makers. The IBRD report in 1951 had made a […]

Sugath Kulatunga, Derana TV Channel must be congratulated on the new program they have introduced under the title ‘Rebuild Sri Lanka’ and brilliantly conducted by the dynamic Chatura de Alwis. I hope other channels also follow this example and devote more time on development issues rather than wasting time on never ending cheap TV drama […]