FAO Delivers Climate Resilient 'Unsinkable' Boats & Model Fish Display Stalls to Strengthen Fisheries Sector – Lanka Business Online lankabusinessonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lankabusinessonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It is comprehensively “growth” oriented.
What were the factors that resulted in the 2021 Budget?
The country has been experiencing slow and low growth since 2015, which by 2019 was only 2.3% vis-à-vis 5% in 2014. Contractors and suppliers who had supplied a good or a service to the Government had not been paid their dues, which by the end of 2019 was almost Rs. 250 billion. NPL in the banks had increased to almost 5% from the lows of 1-2 % with almost 25% of those in the NPL constituted by SMEs. The electricity sector that requires at least 200 MW to be added annually did not see a single MW added to the electricity generation capacity.
Sri Lankan president calls on companies to exploit pandemic for cost-cutting
Addressing the Sri Lanka Economic Summit early this month, President Gotabhaya Rajapakse called on big business to take advantage of the “beneficial consequences” of the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual event was organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the country’s premier business lobby.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapakse, attends an event to mark the anniversary of country’s independence from British colonial rule [Credit: AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena]
India’s Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman was the keynote speaker at the summit, which was held on December 1. She spoke about the “synergistic and complementary” nature of India’s so-called “self-reliant visions” of India and Sri Lanka jargon used by both governments to cover up their big-business agendas.