ASSESSMENTS

A Familiar Name Takes Charge in Sri Lanka

Nov 22, 2019 | 09:00 GMT

Workers at the Chinese majority-owned Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) in Colombo load a cargo ship in this photograph from June 24, 2016. Sri Lanka's new president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will seek to maintain a delicate balance between the region's heavyweight powers.

(LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Highlights

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's main domestic priority will be to revive economic growth and restore a sense of national security in the aftermath of Easter bombings that many blamed on government failings.
To achieve the government's economic objectives, Rajapaksa's administration will focus on attracting funding to build out the country's infrastructure, all while ensuring its debt burden is sustainable.
Because Sri Lanka needs development funding, it will rely on international creditors, including China and India, as it balances between competing powers in its foreign relations.

A familiar name is taking the helm in Sri Lanka. Gotabaya Rajapaksa surged to victory in Nov. 16 elections in part because he succeeded in channeling his credentials as a minister who helped end Sri Lanka's long-running civil war to win the confidence of an electorate demanding security after an Islamic State-inspired group killed 290 people in terrorist attacks in April. Economic grievances, however, were as much a factor in the minds of voters as national security. And as Sri Lanka's $89 billion economy lumbers through its latest downturn, the new president's administration will focus on reviving growth, raising the country's income status and creating jobs, all while ensuring the growing debt burden remains manageable. As a developing country in a strategically significant location, Sri Lanka's needs for capital will create more opportunities for China and India to lavish funding on the island nation. Whatever the case, Gotabaya Rajapaksa will...

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