Sri Lanka had a golden opportunity for a fresh start with regime change almost two years ago. Has it been squandered, like opportunities before? What lies ahead? In this lecture Razeen Sally presents three scenarios and the conditions, political, economic and social, that would make them happen.  Scenario One is 'take-off': a stable liberal democracy, sustainable and broadly shared economic growth, ethnic reconciliation and balanced international relations. Scenario Two is 'drift': populist, incompetent governance, crony economics, social discontent and China-tilting foreign relations. Scenario Three is 'relapse' -- back to Big Man illiberal democracy, a statist economy, ethnic strife and servitude to China. Now Sri Lanka hovers around Scenario Two, with Scenario One on the distant horizon and Scenario Three lurking around the corner. What needs to change to realise Scenario One and consign Scenario Three to history? And are Sri Lankans capable of making those changes?

WHO IS RAZEEN SALLY?

Razeen Sally is  Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies, the main economic think tank in his native Sri Lanka. He was on the faculty of the London School of Economics for eighteen years, where he also received his PhD. He has held adjunct teaching, research and advisory positions at universities and think tanks in the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia. He is on the Global Agenda Council for Competitiveness of the World Economic Forum, and was awarded the Hayek Medal by the Hayek Society in Germany in 2011. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and co-founded ECIPE, an economic think tank based in Brussels. 

Razeen Sally’s research and teaching focuses on global trade policy and Asia in the world economy. He has written on the WTO, FTAs, and on different aspects of trade policy in Asia. He has also written on the history of economic ideas, especially the theory of commercial policy.

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This event is co-hosted by Echelon Magazine, who's editor Shamindra Kulamanage will moderate the Q&A Session.