Quality Standards, Make or Break Point of Sri Lanka’s Cinnamon Industry
Cinnamon is the leading spice commodity of Sri Lanka. It contributed to approximately 54% of total spice exports and accounted for 8% of total agriculture exports in terms of values, in 2017. During the last decade, Sri Lanka has dominated the world market in cinnamon exports. But, meeting quality standards is a major problem faced by Sri Lanka’s cinnamon exporters. This blog by Dilani Hirimuthugodage focuses on the major quality constraints faced by cinnamon exporters in Sri Lanka and provides recommendations, based on a recent IPS study.
Digitising the Economic Space: Enter, Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka!
IPS’ New Thinkers’ Symposium featured an Innovations Hub, a space for entrepreneurs and innovators to showcase their work. Citra Labs, SYNAPSYS, Dialog Digital Services, and Jigsaw Ensemble presented their work, in line with the Symposium’s overall theme of Technology and Economic Transformation. The discussion highlighted the manner in which innovative products and services address economic policy issues that are of interest to the research community.
Who, When, Where? Improved Data and Information for Tourism Development in Sri Lanka
Tourism’s real contribution to the national economy is important to guide tourism policies. However, this is not yet clear as existing assessments do not take into account all the aspects of economic impacts of tourism. In this blog, Kanchana Wickramasinghe notes that comprehensive data and information can serve as a powerful tool in strategic tourism development.
Do Not Bite Off More than You Can Chew: Single Window Implementation Process in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s National Single Window (NSW), when implemented, will allow businesses to lodge information and documents with a single entry point, to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. Currently, Sri Lanka is at the beginning of the project life cycle in the establishment of a NSW, with the development of a NSW Blueprint to be released soon. In this blog, Janaka Wijayasiri deliberates on the implementation process of the NSW.
Chickens, Turkeys, and Tariffs – A First Attempt at Measuring Border Tax Evasion in Sri Lanka
Although tax evasion by individuals and corporates has been recognised as a burning issue, especially in the context of Sri Lanka trying to increase its direct tax take, there is little empirical work on tax evasion for policymakers to make evidence-based decisions when setting tax rates. This is mostly due to limitations in the data. In her research, Harini Weerasekera attempts to measure ‘border tax evasion’, since export and import data is well recorded for the country, and can act as a source of measuring evasion that could be taking place at its border.
Demystifying Hawala/Undiyal – The Not So Dismal Science:[…] believed that informal fund transfer operations in Sri Lanka have expanded considerably due to the wide gap between the…