Press briefing
Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan: An Expert on Sri Lanka’s Economic Development and Trade with India
7th June 2021, Point Pedro, Sri Lanka – one of the major challenges that Sri Lanka faces is developing its economy and promoting stable bilateral trade ties with India. The World Bank estimates Sri Lanka’s per capita GDP at ~USD 4,000; so, there is clearly a considerable amount of unrealized potential for economic development. But Sri Lanka’s policymakers need evidence-based advice on how to go about realizing that potential. One person who can help them is Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, PhD, a developmental economist who specializes in researching the economic development of Sri Lanka. Dr. Sarvananthan serves as a Principal Researcher at the Point Pedro Institute of Development, which he founded in 2004.
Dr. Sarvananthan is the author of numerous publications concerning topics relevant to Sri Lanka’s economic development. These topics include development outcomes from traditional and new sources of international development finance, the role of fiscal devolution in resolving conflicts in Sri Lanka, economic and political emancipation in conflict-affected regions of Sri Lanka, the effects of the Sri Lankan Civil War on Sri Lanka’s economic development, Sri Lanka’s recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the contributions of the European Union’s GSP+ trade system to poverty reduction in Sri Lanka. He has also investigated India’s informal trade links with Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Dr. Sarvananthan’s current research focuses on local and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in India and Sri Lanka. This is a collaborative effort involving fellow researchers in Sweden, the UK, and India. Given the ongoing nature of the pandemic and its economic effects, the project’s results may offer Sri Lankan and Indian policymakers with valuable insights into how they can optimize their responses to the challenges that their countries face.
