By Garvin Karunaratne Since leaving the Sri Lankan Administrative Service in 1973, I have happened to have worked and lived in four countries for years- that was in the UK, the Bahamas, the USA, and Bangladesh. ​​ Regarding patriotism among the people, I have to admit that Sri Lanka would easily be the worst. This […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The Colonial PeriodAs colonialism was gradually disbanded in the Forties and Fifties many colonial countries were bequeathed with independence, provided with democratic constitutions for governance and allowed to rule themselves. The fundamental aims of the colonial regimes was to maintain law and order, the collection of taxes and to restructure the economies […]

by Garvin Karunaratne In view of the fact that our foreign debt has increased from $ 56 billion, when President Gotabhaya ceded power to President Ranil Wickremasinghe, to as much as $96.5 billion by 30 the June 2023- a staggering increase  of some 70% in fifteen months, it is necessary to step back to see […]

by Garvin Karunaratne My mind runs in nostaglia to three of my attempts at economic development in three countries, where in two where I failed and finally in the third I did succeed. The first was in Edinburgh where in 1980 I worked as a Senior Community Education Worker in Wester Hailes. One of my […]

Garvin Karunaratne  former GA Matara, Way back in 1963, as the Assistant Commissioner for Agrarian Services at Anuradhapura I presided over the Kanna Meeting of the KalaWeva-to Anuradhapura Tanks. It was the Yodha Ela that provided water to over a hundred tanks. It was a charged meeting where well over two hundred, were belligerent even […]

Garvin Karunaratne Many recent Papers detailing details of the August 12, 1953 Hartal in nostaglia took me to my days at Arunachalam Hall at Peradeniya. It was the 11 th of August 1953 and we students had planned for a major a protest in Kandy on the next day. The Vice Chancellor had decided that […]

By Garvin Karunaratne In order to please the IMF that has promised to provide so some $ 3 billion in Aid, we are set to privatize our Assets. It is important to realize that with the Privatization we have lost our sovereignty, if what is privatized is essential for the survival of our country . […]

Garvin Karunaratne My dabbling in agriculture in Sri Lanka, for eighteen long years as an administrative officer in agriculture tells me that August is always a dry month- a month for harvesting. February and August are dry months and the pattern of paddy cultivation had to be geared to that reality, which Mother Nature has […]

Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara 1971-1973 Can we stop imports and save dollars. Yes, We CAN. Let us talk from what we once did. Once when I worked in Nuwara Eliya a car loan of tomatoes purchased at Hanguranketa made my home a Cannery for a weekend and we made Tomatoe Sauce that lasted six […]

by Garvin Karunaratne Every country trains thousands in vocations and leave them with a certificate of competance. The lads and lassies who hold these certificates do not have the ability or the finance to open up ventures. Some end up driving three wheelers and every junction in Sri lanka has a horde of three wheelers. […]

by Garvin Karunaratne We have seen two- the Janasaviya and Samurdhi in action and now are about to march further and have another- Aswesuma. I came to know the Janasaviya, when at the behest of Governor of the Central Province, Mr Imbulana I wrote out the Programme for the economic development of the Central Province. […]

by Garvin Karunaratne The Peoples’ Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at a Seed Distribution at Mawatagama rightly said We look forward to accomplishing the special goal of building the economy of the country”. In detail, the economic development of the country has to be with the farmers”. He has also emphasized that the next challenge is […]

By Garvin Karunaratne. When Prime Minister Sirimavo lost the General Election in Sri Lanka in mid 1977, Sri Lanka did not have a foreign debt. During the time of Sirimavo and earlier, Sri Lanka got foreign loans on projects, where once the development project was completed the production brought about due to the completion of […]

By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara The twitter statement made by Kristilina Georgina, the Managing Director of the IMF, quoted by Adaderana on 22/6 is to be admired. She said that I warmly welcomed the strong ownership by the Sri Lankan government to address current economic challenges. We are committed to support Sri Lanka’s economic […]

Garvin Karunaratne, former SLAS, I had assumed duties as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla in 1967 and the first assignment given to me by the Government Agent, Maralanda was to meet the Hon Prime Minister every Saturday and Sunday at 9 AM at the Warakapola Rest House and be with him till dusk, accompanying […]

by Garvin Karunaratne Rahula College, Matara, a secondary school made a notable contribution in the Divisional Council Development Programme(DDCP) of Sri Lanka(1970-1977) As the Government Agent of the District, I was in charge of implementing the DDCP in the Matara District and in order to commence a new industry I decided to try to make […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Half a century ago I was privileged to be one of the youngest lieutenants handpicked to implement the Paddy Lands Act, the magnificent piece of legislation devised by the visionary leader Hon Philip Gunawardena to allay all the ills of peasant agriculture in Sri Lanka.  It was a time when our country, […]

by Garvin Karunaratne

by Garvin Karunaratne, former SLAS. It was a very strange order coming from the Minister for Public Administration, Mr Felix Dias Bandaranayake, the de facto ruler of Sri Lanka in 1970. You can go on transfer as the Government Agent at Matara only if all members of parliament agree”. The order of the Hon Minister […]

by Garvin Karunaratne. It is said that eighty percent of our oil imports are consumed by motor vehicles.  Thus we have too many motor vehicles and the spares which we can make for them are many. It is time that Motor Car Dealers switch to making motor spares. My Paper tells it all. Half a […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Two of our senior Ministers have been to Africa to copy from them.  Is there anything to get from them. The answer comes from a Paper I wrote long ago which is :

by Garvin Karunaratne To my mind, the  Central Bank of any country is an integral part of the  sovereign country  and it is a ridiculous statement to talk of a Central Bank being independent of its  country.  It is actually the Central Bank of a country that has to perform the most important function of monetary policy-  what monetary policy can […]

by Garvin Karunaratne Norochicolai breaks down again. Is there no other way to produce our power. I enclose one of my Papers that tell us that we can have all our power we need within one year at less than the cost of one years supply of oil we use for power now. I am […]

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 […]

By Garvin Karunaratne  My craze for motoring in the forsaken neglected Sinhala areas where poor unequipped buddhist monks struggle to guide  the people  following the dictat of Lord Buddha: Charita Bhikkae Charikan Mahajana Hitaya, Sukhaya” took me this time to Sandamal Eliya, five miles before one reaches Tanmtirimale.   Tantirimale is a rock temple where there is a […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Perhaps what I wrote a year ago, if followed tells us the only way ahead.  Sri Lanka’s economy finds itself in a situation where one wonders whether the government has allowed it to drift. Perhaps, studying how countries have suffered and faced similar crises in the past may offer us some ideas. […]

By Garvin Karunaratne We are begging everyone for dollars today. Even the power cuts may be increased if we do not find dollars. We may even not have dollars to get our food supplies and medicines! It may surprise many to know how we are somehow not collecting the dollars we can legitimately collect without […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The Comilla Programme of Rural Development was implemented in Bangladesh from 1960 to 1969 by a tri cornered effort of the Government of Bangladesh, The Agency for International Development of the United States of America and the Ford Foundation. The Agency for International Development of the US Government handed over the task […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Director at Center for Global Poverty Alleviation Where would be without the Army?  Have we forgotten what the Army did to rid the country of the LTTE terrorism. Perhaps the Army could be given the task of economic development, like in the USA where the US Army attends to many tasks […]

By Dr Garvin Karunaratne As far back as 1937,Hon Philip Gunawardena mooted a Kelani Valley Development Scheme. It was in the days of our State Council- he made a special motion at the State Council meeting on 16/11/1937 , mooting the Kelani River Flood Management system  to save agricultural lands from severe floods. It was […]