Introducción al artículo científico 3

Sri Lanka’s economy has undergone significant structural changes throughout history. Since the independence in 1948, the economic policies have been shaped by the conflictual political culture of the country and global economic trends. Hence, the history of the Sri Lankan economy can be divided into five periods: (1) ‘The Liberal Economic Regime’ (1948-1956); (2) ‘Closed Economy with Interventionist Policies’ (1956-1970); (3) ‘Regulated Economic Policies’ (1970-1977); (4) ‘Opening up of the Economy’ (1977- 1994); and (5) ‘Open Economy with a Human Face’ (Post 1994).38

With the introduction of a new liberal economic policy, a major change in the economy of SL took place in 1977.39 _{The policy of shifting}

away from the socialist economy, encouraged foreign and private investments, entrepreneurship, and setting up of special economic zones (FTZ) to privatise some parts of the public sector.40 _{The ‘Opening up of}

economy’ paved the way for collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). The shifting economic policies in the period after the independence created major conflicts in the country. One of the major problems was unemployment – mainly among educated rural youth. “The government continued with the provision of research... extension services and irrigation, while removing the controls on the importation of agricultural inputs and machinery. The purchase of paddy fields from farmers under the floor price scheme declined sharply.”41 _The

economic crisis of that time paved the way for many youths in the rural areas of Southern SL to take up arms against the government. The uprising

38 For a detailed study see, Sajith de Mel, “Economic Policy Shifts in Sri Lanka,”: http://dl.nsf.ac.lk/bitstream/handle/1/14327/ER-34(9)_43.pdf?sequence=2 (accessed 15 September 2016).

39 J.R. Jayawardene, a member of “The United Nations Party” who came to power in 1977 associated with a more laissez-faire approach to economic policy than that of the socialist-oriented Sri Lankan Freedom Party. The accusation against this policy is that it widened the gap between the rich and the poor and destroyed the self-sufficiency of the farming system.

40 Free Trade Zones (FTZ) were mainly established to promote foreign investment through tax-exempt, export-oriented manufacturing facilities and better infrastructure. 41 P.J. Gunawardana and W.G. Somaratne, “Economic Policy Regimes and Non- Plantation Agriculture in Sri Lanka since 1970,” in Sri Lanka’s Development since

of the rural youth slowed down economic growth and saw a drastic decline in the economy of the country. The ethno-national war of SL, which lasted for three decades, also adversely affected the entire economy of the country and very recently the 2008 global economic crisis doubled the negative effects on the economy.

Considering the country’s negatively impacted economic sectors, which were a result of various economic shifts of the past decades, the WB statistics describe SL as a lower-middle income country.42 _{Unemployment,}

especially among women and graduates, high inflation and decline in agriculture, can be considered as factors which negatively affect the economy of the country. The main sources of income today are tourism, exports – textiles, tea, rubber, coconut, gems – and overseas employment. It has to be mentioned that today the open economy of the country is heavily dependent on women, especially the ones who are working in the textile sector, the plantation workers/tea pluckers and the migrant workers in the Middle East. As Naoko Otobe elucidates, despite women’s substantial contribution to bringing foreign exchange into the country, in general, women in the labour market – women workers in export sectors including garment factories and those in the ‘plantation sector’ who work under poor working conditions – are discriminated against and are being paid low wages, because of their gender.43

The continuous inferior position of women in comparison with the position of men on the labour market is mainly due to traditional perceptions of gender roles in society: women are care-takers of family and men are the breadwinners.44 _{In the Northern and Eastern regions of the country}

there is a rise in the number of working women as a result of the war, and in female-headed families women have become the main breadwinners. As the consequence of losing their male partners, many Tamil women face new economic challenges that are relatively new to Sri Lankan society.

The economic environment of the country is mostly inter-connected with the political issues and the relationships with the international

42 Cf. “World Bank List of Economies 2013,”: http://www.siteresources.worldbank. org/DATASTATISTICS/ (accessed 20 October 2013).

43 Cf. Naoko Otobe, “Globalization, Employment and Gender in Open Economy of

Sri Lanka,” Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper no. 138 (2013): 1.

44 Cf. Ibid., 7. In the plantation sector, most women workers are involved in fieldwork such as plucking and harvesting while men work in the offices.

community. SL is very dependent on China, Iran and Japan for foreign assistance and among them China is a major lender of funds for infrastructure projects. The United States of America (USA) and the European Union [EU] are the major buyers of the country’s export products. As Rajan Hoole notes:

China’s involvement in Lanka would not only exacerbate local and regional tensions but also cause huge environmental destruction, particularly in the Northern and North Central Provinces. Chinese loans are being used to consolidate Sri Lanka’s military presence in the North through land takeovers, marginalisation of war-affected Tamils and huge illicit deforestation timber by the Defence Ministry including in reserves, using the land powers of the Mahaweli Authority as legal cover.45