by Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara Economist Eran Wicks has rightly pointed out that we in our poor budget, are wasting funds and spending on unnecessary items. He has rightly said that of the Rs 254 million for the Highways Ministry as much as 85% is to be spent on Highways.(The Morning:1/12/23) I have for […]

Garvin Karunaratne Former GA Matara 1971-1973 Having read what the newspapers detail on the first day of the budget, I get the impression that Poverty Alleviation and Training and Empovering the unemployed to become productive, making what the economy needs has not been given a place . Opening new universities and selling off post offices […]

Garvin Karunaratne War is War where lands are conquered. People are essentially a disposable quantity. That is what we are seeing in Gaza, intense bombing reducing homes to rubble where the occupants are buried. People being displaced. That is Today’s civilized order to clear out Gaza for occupation! We are also seeing the indomitable human […]

Garvin Karunaratne Director at Center for Global Poverty Alleviation In my endless travels in countries in three continents, the only country where wind turbines have been continuously sited in the coastal areas happens to be Sri Lanka. In Lanzorette in the Canaries, firstly the authorities built two turbines on the coast, but later they realized […]

By Garvin Karunaratne It is reported that our President Ranil Wickremasinghe is seking th advise from foreign countries like Thailand to resurrect agricultural development in Sri Lanka. We need not go far. Lets go back to the Seventies when we did have a marvellous extension service that enabled us to become self sufficient in paddy, […]

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 […]

Garvin Karunaratne  former GA Matara  Despite my repeated writings  highlighting what has happened to the Dry Zone tanks, the life blood of the people, no action has been taken and today- 2023, there is no proper method of distributing water. This is a matter of great urgency that needs the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture. In […]

by Garvin Karunaratne It is good news that the IMF has agreed to release the second tranche $ 3 billion. I was worried when I read the news of the two specialists that came who voiced that we had not fulfilled all the conditions. However we should be lucky that the IMF decided to release […]

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 […]