Workshop on Job Creation in Manufacturing Sector: Strategy for Sustainable Economic Growth in South Asia

21 June 2017
New Delhi, India

IPS Research Assistant, Vishvanathan Subramaniam, recently argued that Sri Lanka has failed to maximize benefits of outward oriented manufacturing due to inconsistent policy reforms, and a prolonged dependency on a labor and resource intensive portfolio of exports.

He made this observation at the “2^nd Workshop on Job Creation in Manufacturing Sector: Strategy for Sustainable Economic Growth in South Asia” held in New Delhi, India on 21 June 2017.

The workshop – jointly organized by the South Asia Center for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) and the Asia Foundation (India) – consisted of various panel discussions comprising of eminent scholars who discussed ways in which the manufacturing sector could help to instigate gainful, productive and widespread employment generation, a requisite for sustainable and equitable growth in the South Asian region.

Mr. Subramaniam contributed to the discussion by providing a presentation detailing Sri Lanka’s experience in enhancing labor generation through an export-oriented development model.

Furthermore, Mr. Subramaniam noted that job creation in the manufacturing sector has been constrained by discrepancies in the labor force arising namely due to educational disparities, skills mismatches and a subdued drive to tackle low labor force participation rates for women.