By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara In view of the new leash of life Sri Lanka has just got with the election of a President of Sri Lanka avowed to bring about poverty alleviation, I beg to make some suggestions based on my real experience. On my recent travel to Snowdonia in Wales, I happened […]

Garvin Karunaratne, PhD Michigan State University formerly of the SLAS, G.A.Matara It is reported that the IMF  has approved  the third review of Sri Lanka’s Economic Reform Programme. (AdaDerana:23/11/24) It is hoped that what is approved will enable the development of the country in  terms of increasing production in agriculture and also bringing about employment […]

by Garvin Karunaratne E-Con-E-News 3-9 th November in Lanka Web writes: “• ‘Garvin Karunaratne writes again today. I have read his Dahanayaka & red-onion affair several times in the Island. His telephone handling at the Marketing Department’s Tripoli HQ resembles Mountbatten’s war operations room.’” We did use phones in a remarkable way to move veg […]

Garvin Karunaratne  The High Commissioner for Sri Lanka from the UK has told us to to look to the UK for emulation re corruption. Perhaps our High C ommissioner is not aware of the fanciful gifts collected by Prime Minister Starmer and his wife recently.  https://www.adaderana.lk/news/103220/british-hc-recommends-sri-lankan-mps-learn-from-uk-system-to-curb-corruption- What a shame Garvin Karunaratne Additional information by Lanakweb […]

By Garvin Karunaratne , former G.A.Matara This is one of my early papers published four years ago. It is hoped that the new Government may find interesting ideas to follow to enable Sri Lanka’s economy to develop. A Story from Coffee. Ideas for our economic revival. Posted on September 14th, 2020. Republished in November 2024 […]

by Garvin Karunaratne The Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing(Marketing Department) My desk at Tripoli Market had three telephones. Tripoli Market was a very large hanger, perhaps the largest hanger fixed by the British Armed Forces during the Second World War, taken over by the Marketing Department where the headquarters of the vegetable and fruit […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University Posted on February 11th, 2022 One of my earlier papers which is appropriate for the moment- Garvin Karunaratne The Editorial of The Island tells it all: The challenge before us is to retrace our steps, figure out where we took wrong turns, and forge ahead in the right direction as […]

By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara, It is sad that the IMF, one of the two premier organizations created by the United Nations to enable financial stability did attend to the ignominious task of implementing the Structural Adjustment Programme from the Seventies, which did really cause all countries that sought financial assistance to become overly […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Former SLAS, G.A Matara The Small Industries Textile Manufacturing Programme This began with handloom training provided in village areas. Textile Handloom Programmes were commenced all over the island from the early Fifties and the Small Industries Department imported yarn and sold them to the entrepreneurs at cost. The Department of Small Industries employed […]

by Garvin Karunaratne I enclose a comment from ee.com on the Divisional Development Councils Programme  If done- it can be implemented in days- it will train the young unemployed to become productive and also produce what the country needs. • B2. The Divisional Development Councils Program of PM Sirimavo (2009, excerpts) – Garvin Karunaratne The experience […]

By Garvin Karunaratne I enclose a write up by eesrilanka wordpress.com/2019/04/13/playing with history: on some of my writings. __________________________________________________________ C2. Buying Power from Multinationals Garvin Karunaratne recalls his experience of 18 years working in stations like Hambantota as well as in the hilly Districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. He chides the authorities for erecting wind turbines […]

Garvin Karunaratne  Former GA Matara  The experience of the Divisional Development Councils Programme(DDCP) of Sri Lanka(1970-1977) is currently of great importance in today’s situation of unemployment and also the inability to import goods due to the lack of foreign exchange.   This is because the DDCP is a programme that really creates employment. Further it is […]

by Garvin Karunaratne

By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara In 1978, Sri Lanka had a foreign debt of only $ 750 million and that was on projects where at the end there would be an income that would be more than what was borrowed. Sri Lanka never begged before President Jayawardena and Ronnie de Mel came to be […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Administrative Service of Sri Lanka 1955 to 1973 Ph D, Michigan State University Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and we were sovereign till we were conquered by the British in 1815. We were also sovereign  from 1948 to 1977, when President Jayawardena submitted to implement the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF […]

Garvin Karunaratne Mere talk is not what is required in Sri Lanka’s situation of today- massive unemployment and lack of incomes- poverty for the people at large- the vast majority who cannot today be assured of even two meals a day. It is on record that children are not even going to school- they are […]

By Garvin Karunaratne It may be a good idea for all contenders to become our President to understand that Sri Lanka is today a highly indebted country. When President Gotabhaya ceded the reigns of administration our foreign debt was at $ 56 billion.  Now in 2024 it is almost double. The Sunday Times of 9/6/24 […]

By Garvin Karunaratne  Professor Paul Krugman said in 1999 , in the short run. The World is lurching from crisis to crisis, all of them crucially involving the problem of generating sufficient demand. Japan is finding that  conventional monetary and fiscal policies  aren’t enough.  If it can happen to Japan how sure can we be […]

Garvin Karunaratne It is sad to reflect that DIG Munidasa (Muni) is no more.  As a relative of mine he was very close to us and very helpful on many an occasion. Muni hails from a family group  from Pilane, Galle, that has greatly contributed to Mother Lanka- he as a senior officer in the […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Former GA Matara Proceeding to Scotland from  London after a gap of a few years  I came across many new wind turbines again and again. They all churn out electricity from the wind power, mind you the wind power is far less than in our hills at Nuwara Eliya and Madugoda. I have […]

Garvin Karunaratne, PhD. Michigan Stae University, Is it not sad that Sri Lanka, a country that had no foreign debt in 1977, is today having a foreign debt of $ 91 billion( Prof. Charitha Herath:Lankadeepa- 7/2/24) When President Gotabhaya left the debt was $ 56 billion. Sri Lanka is a country of ample resources, a […]

Garvin Karunaratne My We alleviate poverty that afflicts over half of us Mind you By the Sixties we had alleviated poverty We did control our economy then, made things. We imported only what we could not make In 1977 we embraced the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Sent all development workers to the barracks yet we pay […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The IMF was the international organization which the United Nations at its inception was intended to organize the economies of the World .This did really happen till 1977 when the Washington Consensus the ideas of World Bank chief McNamara, and President Ronald Regan took over world development and altered the course of […]

By Garvin Karunaratne The Mirror Business Page of 16/2/2024 tells it all: Asserts any disruption to the programme would create high economic costs, including growth setbacks, loss of confidence and prolonged negative investment sentiments. (From Sri Lanka’s Economic revival hinges on IMF Deal”) Our President himself tells us:. We made an economic plan with the IMF. […]

by Garvin Karunaratne Thanks to Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Bandula Gunawardena for revealing that the Sri Lankan Government is running a shortfall of Rs 10 trillion to meet its expenditure with its revenue…We collect only Rs 3 trillion while the expenses are Rs 13 trillion”(The Morning20​/02/2024) This reveals a situation of sheer bankruptcy, a situation out […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara My warnings about an unbridled Central Bank have come true with the Central Bank mandarins deciding a salary increase of as much as seventy percent, while over half our population lives in sheer poverty having to forgo at least a meal everyday. My Warnings appeared in Lanka Web of […]

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University‚  The achievement of the CFTC- the Commonwealth  Fund, creating employment for over three million youths in Bangladesh may be of interest. In  Bangladesh when the new Military Government of General Ershard took over the country in 1982, the Ministry of Youth Development was providing skills training to 40,000 youths […]

Garvin Karunaratne former SLAS, GA Matara.  What the country needs immediately is a programme of employment creation and poverty alleviation where the unemployed will be making things that are being imported today. Last week I saw a packet of pastry sheets made in Malaysia for sale at Cargills.  An industry to make pastry sheets can […]

By Garvin Karunaratne I am quoting an earlier paper of mine which if considered can develop the sad state of tourism in our country.  The only addition I make is about the takeover of hotel bookings on the Internet by giant foreign companies that have also taken over advertising. Our tourist board authorities have to […]

By Garvin Karunaratne In the Fifth Century we built Yodha Ela in Anuradhapura District at a gradient of five inches in a mile. Today, we are begging for dollars from the IMF. Our leaders were fooled by the IMF and A country that was never in Debt, got weaned to live on loans and handouts . Our […]