Dr Dushni Weerakoon speaks at NSF book launch

30 July 2021

Dushni Weerakoon, Executive Director, IPS spoke at the book launch on ‘COVID-19: Impact, Mitigation, Opportunities and Building Resilience’ organised by the National Science Foundation at the BMICH. She observed that ‘normalcy’ has been fundamentally altered by the pandemic experience across social, political, economic and technological frontiers. Preexisting trends may take new forms, others will be greatly accelerated. Sri Lanka needs to understand how these are shaping a post-pandemic economic landscape. She pointed to three linked and mutually reinforcing trends: structural changes in globalisation, innovations in technology and the changing nature of labour markets. Sri Lanka’s response to meet these challenges should not be to close itself off from the global economy, but instead to facilitate innovation, and invest in skills and infrastructure by putting digital transformation at the front and centre of its post-pandemic policy agenda.

Watch video here.