It is less than 24 hours to a very
important Economic debate on how this Country should develop in the next 25
years, and NO Economist worth his brain in Sri Lanka will be present.
There is NO mention of this even in any newspaper today, and for such a historic moment in Sri Lanka, which has never seen such a gathering of world renowned economists that the PM has persuaded to come, it is a damn shame that the organization has been given over to amateurs.
The organizers don’t even have a list of
the great economic thinkers of our time, who have something to contribute to
the debate. (not the geriatrics, who will not be able to keep their eyes open
let alone hear due to the defects of their hearing aids.)
With Josef Stieglitz, Ricardo Haufman,
Montek Singh Ahluwalia and a stellar cast of experts, matched with a few
notables who are NOT in the policy making sphere like Razeen Sally, Nishan de
Mel and WA Wijewardena the audience seem to be just a bunch of 8th
grader politicians!
Frankly the whole seminar and the topics
that are being covered are completely over the heads of the attendees, who are
most likely to fall asleep during the discussions, when all those who could
benefit from this and give their input to the economic debate are completely
left out.
If I am not mistaken the PM is putting a
three line whip on attendance of the Ministers, but unlike the PM, the
ministers are simply incapable of understanding even 1% of the topic these top
economists are about to expound upon.
Macroeconomics and Fiscal Stability –
being lectured to people who are anything but!
Structural Transformation and
Competitiveness – To those incapable of seeing the PMs vision will certainly
not buy into the World Renowned Economists exhortations.
Urbanization and Development to those
who have not been able to turn up to the Cinnamon Grand in time, due to the
predictable, but totally messed up chokehold on traffic, due to lack of ability
to forecast and action.
Regional Development and Social
Inclusion to those who don’t know what they are talking about.
This is invitation only,
at least if they charged Rs25K per head, and gave sufficient notice, the best of
the best would have paid and come! WASTE!
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