By Garvin Karunaratne

 Sri Lanka, a country in grave foreign debt- as much as $ 56 billion in 2023, a country that did not owe a dollar to anyone in the early Seventies, had better organize devices to use the Recently won $3 billion tranche from the IMF for economic development to bring about production and incomes to the people before the $ 3 billion IMF tranche dissipates into the thin air due to luxury imports. 

Our President and Prime Minister may please consider new ideas. My Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, designed and initiated by me when I worked in Bangladesh as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower, which being continued to be implemented by members of the elite Bangladesh Civil Service, may provide ideas for kind consideration.  It is a programme that within four decades has brought incomes and employment to over three million youths. 

The Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, a Programme that has created three million youth entrepreneurs in four decades.

Posted on February 13th, 2023 in LankaWeb

By Garvin Karunaratne

It all happened in the Bangladesh Secretariat, three days after General Ershard took over the country in a bloodless coup on the 24 th of March 1982. The Minister for Youth Development was clamped in prison and the work of the Ministry was in jeopardy. The third in command, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and Manpower evaluated the work done in the Ministry. Suddenly at the close, he realized that I was an outsider and inquired who I was and I was then introduced as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Youth Development.

What can you contribute for Bangladesh”. It was more a military command. I could have spoken in support of the youth training programmes done by the Ministry but decided otherwise. I replied.

I would like you to consider approving a new programme aimed at making the 40,000 youths who are being trained every year to be guided to become self employed.”