Ricardo Hausmann’s message: Restructure exports for growth choosing products over which you can compete with others
Sri Lankans’ strange psyche: Exports are good but Imports are bad
There is a popular economic belief among Sri Lankans that in order to build Sri Lanka as a strong nation, it should produce everything within the country and say goodbye to imports as far as possible.
It is so indelibly ingrained in the psyche of Sri Lankans that it is not a belief that could easily be erased. Anyone who speaks against it is immediately branded as somebody odd, without nationalistic sentiments and pro-Western. Hence, politicians of every generation have used it as an effective mantra to rally masses around them.
Ricardo Hausmann-Monday, 11 January 2016
Sri Lankans’ strange psyche: Exports are good but Imports are bad
There is a popular economic belief among Sri Lankans that in order to build Sri Lanka as a strong nation, it should produce everything within the country and say goodbye to imports as far as possible.
It is so indelibly ingrained in the psyche of Sri Lankans that it is not a belief that could easily be erased. Anyone who speaks against it is immediately branded as somebody odd, without nationalistic sentiments and pro-Western. Hence, politicians of every generation have used it as an effective mantra to rally masses around them.
