Oct 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has made a ‘re-commitment’ to fiscal prudence and a promotion of public private partnerships is a pragmatic recognition of private sector strengths that will help improve finances, a top economist and retired public servant had said. Former central bank governor A S Jayewardene said a recent speech by Treasury Secretary mentioned a policy change of “placing trust on both the private and public sector for economic development.”
Class Struggle
“Given frequent negative references earlier such as ‘no privatization’ this is a significant statement,” Jayewardene told members of the Sri Lankan Economics Association.
“I think that we are ceasing to look at the economy through the prism of the old class struggle.
“It was a pragmatic recognition of the fact that the resilience of the economy during the adversities of external shocks and internal disruption during the war days, was due to the dynamism of the private sector which has come to account for 80 percent of the economy.”
After gaining independence from British rule Sri Lanka went about violating people’s property rights ‘nationalizing’ tax-paying profitable businesses, taking over land and even houses built by citizens.
As tax revenues were not e