(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that in order to transition from a controlled economy to a market economy not only the economic restrictions but restrictions on non -governmental activities would also have to be removed.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that the country should be set on an export-oriented economic track to successfully face its challenges concerning repayment of debts and economic development.
He was speaking at a book launch held at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute in Colombo yesterday where C .Narayanasuwami launched his book “ Managing Development: People Policies and Institutions”. Wickremesinghe was flanked by Central Bank Governor, C. Narayanasuwami, Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Dr Lloyd Fernando, K.H J Wijeyadasa, and Kanthi Gunathilaka at the head table. The gathering comprised many civil servants, law makers and experts in numerous fields.
The Prime Minister said that the Governor of the Central Bank knows that it had taken four years to stabilize the economy and had somehow managed it at the end.
“In managing the development from a controlled economy to a market economy we have to ask how China, which was a backward, controlled economy in 1976, has got ahead? How is it that Vietnam has got ahead?” he said.
“These are countries which have not emphasized on economic development at the cost of social development . Both had social development and economic development, which I think is one of the major issues we have to answer,” he pointed out.
