Trade Liberalisation in Sri Lanka: Exports, Technology and Industrial Policy - Hardcover

by Ganeshan Wignaraja (Author)

The East Asian experience suggests that technological development is fundamental to export success in outward-oriented economies. This study analyses export performance in Sri Lanka at a national and firm level, focusing on the acquisition of industrial technological capabilities during a period of trade liberalization. It compares Sri Lanka's record with Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Analysis of the export and technological record of enterprises of varying performance highlights the policies which enhance competitiveness in developing and transition economies.

Author Biography

GANESHAN WIGNARAJA is Chief Programme Officer at the Export and Industrial Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and works on manufactured export competitiveness, private sector development and industrial policies in Asian and African economies. He received a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford and has worked for the OECD Development Centre in Paris, the Institute of Economics and Statistics, University of Oxford and Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford and the Economic Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat. He has acted as an adviser to the governments of Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Pakistan among others and as a consultant to the World Bank, the IFC, the OECD, the UN World Institute of Development Research, the ILO, UNRISD and USAID. He has published widely on trade and industrial policies, structural adjustment, industrial technology and enterprise development. His books include The Postwar Evolution of Development Thinking with Charles Oman, Participatory Development: Learning from South Asia with Ponna Wignaraja, Akmal Hussein and Harsh Sethi, and Technology and Enterprise Development: Ghana under Structural Adjustment with Sanjaya Lall, Giorgio Barba-Navaretti and Simon Teitel.