His Excellency the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa has reconstituted the Board of Governors of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS). Prof. Buddhadasa Hewavitharana, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Peradeniya who has been a founder member of the IPS since it was established in 1989 has been appointed as the Chairman of the new Board. He succeeds Dr. Gamani Corea, who was the Founder Chairman of the IPS.

The two other founder members reappointed are Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke, Emeritus Chairman, Marga Institute and Prof. W.D Lakshman, Professor of Economics, University of Colombo. Prof. S.T Hettige, Professor of Sociology, University of Colombo is the newly appointed member. In addition to these appointed members by His Excellency the President, the Board consists of three ex-officio members, namely, Dr. P.B. Jayasundera, Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr. Nivard Cabraal, Governor, Central Bank, and Mr. B. Abegunawardena, Director-General, Department of National Planning. Dr. Saman Kelegama is the Executive Director of the Institute.

The IPS was conceived as an autonomous institution to promote policy oriented economic research and has now developed as the economic think-tank of the country carrying out research into analysis of socio-economic policy issues offering advice on such concerning to the government and its agencies and the private sector while disseminating information and knowledge among the public.

At the first meeting of the new Board, Prof. Buddhadasa Hewavitharana from the Chair proposed the following appreciation to the out-going Chairman, Dr. Gamani Corea which was duly adopted by the Board.

The story of Gamani Corea functioning as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Policy Studies for seventeen years from the time of its founding in 1989, is about the advent of a global man to preside over the affairs of a local institution. Illuminating the background are his involvements in world economic affairs as the Secretary General of UNCTAD for eleven years, having been reappointed to that post thrice, and as chairman/team leader/member of a number of UN committees, panels or missions and several international conferences and expert groups, all focused on the concerns of developing economies. Most notable among them are his membership, and later the Chairmanship, of the South Commission and his Chairmanship of the Research and Policy Committee of the South Centre, which he held during 1987 to 2003. Lest we forget, Dr. Corea’s engagements in national (“local”) development positioned at the very helm of national development planning, and in conducting or directing research for nearly two and a half decades, leave behind a record by itself.

The IPS stood to benefit from its due share of this fund of wisdom and experience of Dr. Corea, and, so it did. In a nutshell, the IPS was born out of a conceptual framework that envisioned it as an independent institution with its mission to carry out research into and analyses of policy issues with objectivity and professionalism and give advice to policy makers accordingly for the benefit of the people of the country. Knowing from his world- wide experience that this is the desirable type of institution that every developing economy should have to promote its development objective, Dr. Corea lent his patronage and advocacy to this vision of an independent IPS by practicing wariness to protect this concept from any intrusions and by encouraging the building up of an Endowment Fund for itself. Imbued with the wholesome traditions of scholarship that he had gained at Cambridge where he studied for his B.A. and at Oxford where he researched to obtain his Ph.D., he was mindful of the quality of the research carried out in terms of objectivity, professionalism, usefulness and the agendas planned for research. In such environment, the Board of Governors and the Executive Director endeavoured to build up an Endowment Fund from the savings which together with current earnings has now made the IPS financially independent, and to build up a qualified and an energetic staff to produce good quality research to serve the needs of the country’s development. Also, resources have been raised and plans have been finalized to put up a building for the Institute on the land allocated to it by the Government.

Finally, it deserves to be mentioned that despite his failing health in the last two years he insisted on attending to chair the Board meetings and on being briefed about the progress of the Institute.

At this time when he is relinquishing his duties as Chairman, we take the opportunity to wish Dr. Corea good health and long life.