Sri Lanka’s trade, export and foreign direct investment agenda lacks ambition and urgency, and delays will be increasingly painful as the global economy worsens, the Centre for a Smart Future (CSF) said in a one-year progress review published Monday and reported by EconomyNext on Tuesday.
The Colombo-based public policy think tank said progress across most of the eight priority reforms it identified a year ago has been slow, even as trade volatility has persisted and pressures on Sri Lanka’s foreign earnings have intensified.
On trade competitiveness, CSF flagged the continuing vacancy of a Chief Trade Negotiator post and the absence of a dedicated office tasked with championing international trade. While the formulation of a National Export Development Plan for 2026–2030 was welcome, the think tank cautioned that “an announced strategy is not the same as effective implementation,” citing the failure of the 2018–2022 National Export Strategy through institutional fragility and insufficient budgetary commitment.
CSF said Sri Lanka’s FDI performance over the past decade had been disappointing relative to its potential and to regional peers. It pointed to a recent Committee on Public Finance (COPF) exchange in which the Board of Investment was questioned on the absence of any discernible logic behind how tax incentives for investment are calibrated, calling it evidence that the country “lacks a clear strategic vision of what kind of FDI it is seeking.”
The think tank urged the government to operationalise the Economic Commission envisaged under the 2024 Economic Transformation Act, describing a high-powered coordinating body as “the minimum institutional infrastructure” for countries competing seriously for FDI. If full implementation of the Act is not feasible, CSF said, at a minimum the Economic Commission, Invest Sri Lanka and the Zones authority should be extracted and activated as standalone priorities.
The review pairs with the Gamani Corea Foundation’s “stop-and-go” forum earlier this month and a widening chorus of public-policy voices pressing the government on structural growth drivers, including recent COPF scrutiny of state institutions.
