The World Bank Group and the Government of Sri Lanka launched a new five-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to support Sri Lanka’s continued recovery, help achieve its 7 percent medium-term economic growth target, and support job creation.

“We are committed to building on the continued macroeconomic stability, strengthened governance and revenue-based fiscal consolidation that we have already achieved. Our goal is to confidently steer our economy towards strong, sustainable and inclusive growth. We are working towards an economic growth rate of over 7 percent in the medium term,” said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. 

Private sector-led job creation is at the heart of the new partnership. Nearly one million young Sri Lankans are expected to enter the job market over the next decade. Without stronger growth and greater private investment, the economy will create only around 300,000 new formal jobs — leaving roughly 7 out of every 10 young job seekers without access to a quality job.

“Sri Lanka’s recovery over the past three years has been hard-won and impressive. This new partnership framework is designed to ensure that the benefits reach everyone,” said Johannes Zutt, World Bank Vice President for South Asia.”

By pairing public resources with private capital and innovation, we aim to help Sri Lanka create quality jobs, including for women, young people, and communities that have been left behind.”

The Sri Lankan government will this week make an invitation to the Russian Foreign Ministry for its investors to explore the possibility of investing in the Colombo Port City, which the Sri Lankan government is now trying to promote amongst international investors amidst the Middle Eastern turmoil.

Sources in the government told the Daily Mirror that Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko will arrive in the island on April 2 for high level discussions and both Russia and Sri Lanka will explore the opportunity of collaborating in several sectors.

This will include seeking cooperation in the economic, trade, cultural and political sectors. “The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister’s visit will not include discussions on fuel but it will be a political visit. We will look at several areas of cooperation including investments in the Colombo Port City and several other sectors,” the source said.

As the entire Gulf region remains volatile with the ongoing escalation of violence between Iran, Israel and the United States, the government is looking at promoting Sri Lanka as an ideal investment hub with its strategic location in the Indian Ocean and attracting investments into the already existing foreign projects.

Sri Lanka has been ranked the second in the world’s most unaffordable housing markets as per a report published by ‘The Economist’. 

According to the report, Cities in developing countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines are gaining hundreds of millions of people. 

“This urbanisation is only getting started. In South Asia, for example, barely 35% of the population is urban, compared with 80% in North America,” the report said.

“Yet problems in Asia’s great metropolises are mounting. The likes of Delhi, Jakarta and Manila suffer from awful pollution, traffic and crime. The greatest challenge is a shortage of decent and affordable housing. Fixing that would improve millions of lives. It would also boost economies by making city-dwellers more productive.