Sri Lanka Development Stratergies
1. Introduction
Sri Lanka’s development policies are being reoriented under the stewardship of the United People’s Freedom
Alliance (UPFA) Government, aimed at acceleration of economic growth with special consideration given to pro-poor growth strategies. The development strategy consolidates positive elements of the policies followed over the past two decades and revisits the weaknesses, limitations and lapses in past policies in order to ensure equitable development in the country.
As stated in the Economic Policy Framework, 2004 -Creating our Future, Building our Nation 2004
- and further articulated in the budget 2005, the new development strategy is premised on pro-poor pro-growth income improvement and redistribution policies with complementary participation of a socially responsible private sector and a strong public sector.1/ Higher economic growth alone is not sufficient to reduce poverty; instead it should focus on pro-poor growth strategies. A sustainable 6-8 per cent growth in real income is targeted over the next five years. This in turn requires raising investment to around 35 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Such investments include domestic and foreign investment as well as public investment. The ultimate objective is to ensure that Sri Lanka steadily progresses towards an upper middle-income country status within the next ten years.
The National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS) of the Government is the major policy approach to navigate pro-poor pro-growth, income and redistribution strategies. The main objectives of the NPRGS are to facilitate poor groups to engage in productive economic activities while giving them income support during the transition period, reduce the poverty gap between different social strata, minimize regional variations in the incidence of poverty and to narrow regional disparities in development. In the process of the implementation of these policy interventions and their translation into development
Sri Lanka’s development policies are being reoriented under the stewardship of the United People’s Freedom
Alliance (UPFA) Government, aimed at acceleration of economic growth with special consideration given to pro-poor growth strategies. The development strategy consolidates positive elements of the policies followed over the past two decades and revisits the weaknesses, limitations and lapses in past policies in order to ensure equitable development in the country.
As stated in the Economic Policy Framework, 2004 -Creating our Future, Building our Nation 2004
- and further articulated in the budget 2005, the new development strategy is premised on pro-poor pro-growth income improvement and redistribution policies with complementary participation of a socially responsible private sector and a strong public sector.1/ Higher economic growth alone is not sufficient to reduce poverty; instead it should focus on pro-poor growth strategies. A sustainable 6-8 per cent growth in real income is targeted over the next five years. This in turn requires raising investment to around 35 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Such investments include domestic and foreign investment as well as public investment. The ultimate objective is to ensure that Sri Lanka steadily progresses towards an upper middle-income country status within the next ten years.
The National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS) of the Government is the major policy approach to navigate pro-poor pro-growth, income and redistribution strategies. The main objectives of the NPRGS are to facilitate poor groups to engage in productive economic activities while giving them income support during the transition period, reduce the poverty gap between different social strata, minimize regional variations in the incidence of poverty and to narrow regional disparities in development. In the process of the implementation of these policy interventions and their translation into development