Export Strategy for Sri Lanka Initiated

Editor, News-in-Asia, 20 July 2018, where the title is “Sri Lanka launches ambitious 5 yr National Export Strategy to boost economic growth”

The Sri Lankan government has launched a five year National Export Strategy (NES) to boost foreign investments, foreign exchange earnings and employment, the Daily FT reported Friday. Addressing the launch of the five year NES strategy, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the key objective of the NES  was to increase the capacity of the local export sector, improve trade performance and competitiveness and ensure different sectors of the economy evolved to grab a share of the global market in reaching the government’s goal of 28 billion US dollars in export revenue by 2022.

Bob Carr’s Sharp Criticism of Present China-Bashing by Aussie Ministers, Media and Intellectuals

Bob Carr, courtesy of The Australian Financial Review, 10 July 2018, where the title reads as follows:’Get tough rhetoric has denied us any sway in Beijing”… with highlights being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

As foreign minister I recall an irritating flare-up in our relations with one of the Pacific states. There had been a “misunderstanding” at Sydney airport that upset the island state’s prime minister. The anger ran strong and the state contemplated a big anti-Australian gesture: terminating an arrangement under which we trained their police. And, here’s the rub, inviting China to fill the gap.

More interesting was the Chinese response, captured by one of our agencies. China rejected the notion of moving in because it knew it would antagonise Australia. At the time we had differences with China over Huawei and US Marines, but still managed a mutually respectful, pragmatic relationship.

 Malcolm Turnbull gratuitously opted to parody Chairman Mao when introducing anti-foreign interference legislation. AAP

Hambantota Port City Prospects Burgeoning

Editor, NewsinAsia, 22 June 2018,  where the title reads ” Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port aiming to attract $500 mn worth of investments

Colombo, June 22 (Daily FT) – As China Merchant Port Holdings Ltd. (CM Port) completes the final tranche of payment for the Hambantota Port joint venture, the public-private partnership is now aiming to attract as much as $ 500 million worth of investments to set up plants inside the port as well as general operation expansion.

Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG), the joint venture company formed by the Sri Lankan Government and CM Port, has already received 15 proposals to set up plants inside the port, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the media yesterday at a press conference held at his ministry.

SBD de Silva: Marxist Scholar Extraordinary … Sharp Mind, Simple Life-Style

Gamini Seneviratne,  courtesy of The Island, 18 June 2018

SB who passed away last week at the age of 93 was undoubtedly the foremost analyst we have had of what his principal work defined as “The Political Economy of Underdevelopment”.  In that work, first published in 1982, as the blurb puts it, Dr. de Silva dealt with the theory of underdevelopment as he attempted a synthesis between the internal and external aspects of underdevelopment. In the Marxist tradition he focused on the impact of the external on the internal as the dominant reality.

S. B. D. de Silva

Routledge, May 23, 2012 – Business & Economics – 646 pages

0 Reviews

First published in 1982, this reissue deals with the theory of underdevelopment, as Dr. de Silva attempts a synthesis between the internal and external aspects of underdevelopment and, in the Marxist tradition, focuses on the impact of the external on the internal as the dominant reality.Viewing underdevelopment as a problem in the non-transformation to capitalism, this analysis is in terms of the character of the dominant capital and of the dominant classes. Underdevelopment thus encompasses the ‘traditional’ peasant economy and also the export sector where the ‘modernizing’ influence of colonialism was felt. The book finally considers how the contemporary internationalization of capital affected the economies of the Third World.

Sri Lanka as Hub in China’s Expanding Silk Road Outreach

Mirror News Item 19 May 2019, with title  “China claims Sri Lanka hub in Silk Road strategy””

China hinted Sri Lanka’s growing importance in its ambitious US$500 billion One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative claiming Sri Lanka is a ‘hub’ in its OBOR strategy.  Sri Lanka meanwhile stressed of its own role in OBOR, and revealed that the Colombo Port City project despite the 25-year long timeline, is ‘progressing at great speed’.

Minister Bathiudeen (right) is joined by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region’s (GZAR) Director of Department of Commerce  Diao Weihong (second from left) at the event. Pic by Kithsiri de Mel

Colombo Port Terminal’s Rapid Growth consolidated via Deal with China

Editorial Item in NewsinAsia, 17 March 2018, where the title is thus “Sri Lanka, China to jointly promote Colombo Port”

Colombo, March 17 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port expects to handle 7.0 million containers in 2018, up 12.9 percent from the 6.2 million twenty foot equivalent units handled in 2017 through a joint marketing by three terminals, Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasingha said here Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s Jaya Container Terminal of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), South Asia Gateway Terminal run by John Keells Holdings and Colombo International Container Terminal of China’s CM Ports has inked a deal to jointly promote the port, which now ranks at 25 in the world’s busiest ports.

 

Machang. China as Sri Lanka’s Best Friend

Don Manu in Sunday Island, 18 February 2018

 

 

Even as the Chinese New Year of the Dog dawned this Friday, it is becoming crystal clear that China is fast turning out to be Lanka’s best friend.. And that this country, reduced as it is to the nadir of its economical and political existence and the recent loss of its moral compass, should grip the hand of friendship. China, for whatever reason, has so earnestly extended to her. If last week’s election result showed the political negative Yin of Chinese philosophy, it has become vital that the nation embrace the positive Yang on the economic front and anchor its last buck and its first faith to the growing power of the Chinese Yuan.