GG News Bureau
Colombo, 20th Dec. A senior official said on Tuesday that Sri Lanka has approved a proposal to establish an institute aimed at educating parliamentarians and officials to help them make informed decisions on economic and trade matters.
Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told reporters that the cabinet had approved President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal to establish the Sri Lanka Economic and Trade Institute.
“This will help them to make informed decisions on policy formulation,” he said.
The legal draftsman would begin work to compile a draft bill, he said.
Sri Lanka entered its worst economic crisis, declaring its first-ever sovereign debt default earlier this year. According to analysts, the crisis could have been avoided if informed decisions had been made around 2020.
Despite numerous warnings, current foreign minister Ali Sabry recently stated that parliamentarians were not adequately aware of the looming crisis.
The political leadership and senior fiscal officials have been accused of being ignorant, which has prevented them from making informed decisions such as timely approaching the IMF for a bailout.
The cabinet also approved changes to the laws that govern the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in order to increase its independence.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, was thrown into financial and political turmoil earlier this year due to a currency shortage.
The worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 was triggered by a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves.
Due to the forex crisis, Sri Lanka declared its international debt default in mid-April. The island nation is currently in talks with the IMF about a bailout.
A staff-level agreement reached in August resulted in a USD 2.9 billion aid package spread over four years. Due to the need to restructure debt, the release is currently on hold.
Sri Lanka is talking to creditors to meet the IMF condition for the facility. Due to this, the island nation has been unable to afford key imports, including fuel, fertilisers and medicines, leading to serpentine queues.
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