Theme:

Impact of Covid-19 Health Crisis on Services Sector Development in Sri Lanka: Challenges and Opportunities

Professor:

Dr. H. D. Karunaratne

Chair Professor in Business Economics

Faculty of Management & Finance

University of Colombo

Date: 9 September 2021 (Thursday)

Time: 19:00-20:30 (UTC+8)

Main points

1. Conceptual Definition (recession & crisis)

2. Impact of Covid-19 Health Crisis on Economic and Social Progress of Sri Lanka

3. Characteristics, Roots and Outcomes of Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka

4. Sectoral Growth and Services Sector Development Issues

5. Challenges and Opportunities

Summary:

The lecture provides an overview of the impact of Covid-19 on services sector development in Sri Lanka. Prof. Karunaratne first introduces how Covid-19 has affected the economic and social Progress of Sri Lanka. During past two years, the real economic growth of Sri Lanka sharply went down, facing more challenges compared with many other developing countries in Asia. The second part of the public lecture focuses on the characteristics, root causes, and outcomes of economic crisis of Sri Lanka from both domestic and global perspectives. The last part illustrates that Service sector in Sri Lanka got triple hit under covid-19, and is now facing severe problems because of commercial disruption. Prof. Karunaratne holds that Covid-19 brings great challenges to development in Sri Lanka, but opportunities are also to be found by future global cooperation. (written by Ms. HUANG Ruihan)

*The views and opinions expressed in this lecture series are those of the guest lecturers. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the AUA or its members or its Secretariat.