Based on a new Working Paper by IPS researchers titled ‘Incentivizing Foreign Investment in Sri Lanka and the Role of Tax Incentives’, this article argues that a key medium-term challenge facing the country is to find a balance between providing a competitive tax incentives regime to attract FDI and keeping tax foregone to a minimum in order to preserve domestic revenue.

As Sri Lanka gears up for the third full budget since the end of the war, Anushka Wijesinha (Research Economist – IPS) looks at the formidable challenge for Sri Lanka’s development – finding the money to finance it. Taxation, he argues, must be a major policy priority in strengthening the capacity of the Sri Lankan state.

  The Talking Economics Digest is a bi-annual publication of the IPS, which compiles the articles featured on this blog every 6 months, together with interesting ‘feature’ segments. The latest copy of the Digest (January-June 2012) was launched last week at a networking evening and ‘Expert Voices’ panel discussion on “The Jobs Challenge”. As we distribute [...]

Prospects for the global economy are unclear – Europe is in limbo, but America is showing positive signs. Christine Lagarde captured the ambiguity well – “the weather forecast for the global economy is of light recovery, spring winds, and dark clouds”. Meanwhile, the debate for policymakers in the EU and US is – how much should we tighten without suffocating the economy? Should we trim now, to be lean and more competitive in the future?”. Anushka Wijesinha reviews the key viewpoints….

Exactly a week ago the Executive Board of the World Bank announced that Dr. Jim Kim, the U.S. nominee, will be the new chief of the global development institution. The choice came as no surprise. However, for the first time in the sixty eight-year history of the Bretton Woods institution there was a contest for the top post. Anushka Wijesinha reviews the debates surrounding the suitability of Kim vs the emerging markets choice of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as the World Bank evolves its role and attempts to reform its governance.