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Item Sri Lanka(Institute of South Asian Studies, 2007) Kelegama, SamanThis chapter examines Sri Lanka's integration with the global trading environment and relevant policy issues. In discussing these issues, it also provides a survey of economic and political development during the last five years as well as examines growth patterns and poverty trends.Item South Asia in the World Trading System(Sage, 2000) Kelegama, Saman (Jt ed.); Kumar, Nagesh (Jt ed.)Editorial to the special issue of South Asia Economic Journal on emerging WTO challenges.Item Sri Lanka(World Bank, 2003, 2003) Kelegama, SamanItem South Asia After the Quota System: Impact of the MFA Phase-Out(Institute of Policy Studies in association with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2005, 2005) Kelegama, Saman (ed.)The quota system that was the basis of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), and which governed trade in textile and clothing (T&C) for the last four decades came to an end on 31 December 2004. The MFA artificially repressed the exports of competitive larger countries that had the capacity to supply T&C in large quantities like India and Pakistan in South Asia. At the same time, by providing a guaranteed market access, the MFA assisted several smaller countries in South Asia like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal to build up their export-oriented T&C sectors. The T&C sector gradually occupied a key position in these economies accounting for large foreign exchange earnings and generating a large number of jobs. The dawn of 2005 brought trade in T&C fully into the normal discipline of the WTO. Most studies have shown that the new regime will bring global welfare gains, but it is believed that the gains will be unevenly spread — smaller countries in South Asia will face an uphill task to reap the gains while the larger countries will gain without much difficulty. This book shows the preparatory work done by the South Asian countries for the quota phase-out period and measures taken by them to face the global challenge. It also highlights the new issues in global trade in the context of maintaining competitiveness of T&C of the South Asian region. The book consists of nine chapters which include five South Asian case studies (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal). It also covers new market access issues such as social protection, decent work, Generalized System of Preferences-Plus scheme, and many others.Item Ready-made Garment Exports from Sri Lanka(Routledge, 2009) Kelegama, SamanWith the phasing out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), the Sri Lankan economy, highly dependent on ready-made garment exports, has become vulnerable to the changing global trading system affecting this industry. In such a global environment, strengthening the competitiveness of the industry has become imperative for Sri Lanka if it is to remain as one of the suppliers of choice in major markets. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the industry and shows the steps that have been taken to address the latter. Additional steps taken to select specific garment products according to past performance and global positioning for further improvement and promotion are also highlighted. The paper also suggests some strategies to cope up with the new global challenges.Item Changing face: The Trials and Fortunes of Regional Cooperation in South Asia(Kathmandu: SAWTEE and SACEPS, 2012) Kelegama, SamanAs set out in the organization’s charter, the primary objective of SAARC is to utilize cooperation among its member states as a springboard for achieving cohesive development in the economic, cultural and socio-political lives of their citizens. Nevertheless, despite enormous potential for facilitating such development in a region populated by over 40 percent of the world’s poor, SAARC’s effectiveness has been limited and its successes far too few. In acknowledgement of such failings, a Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) Report was commissioned by the organization for consideration at its 1998 summit in Colombo. The Report points to SAARC’s inadequate role in fostering regional cooperation, and then goes on to articulate a vision of change, detailing the steps that must be taken in order to transform the organization into the fulcrum of a truly integrated and self-sustaining regional society. This article considers the obstacles, which, until now, have hindered SAARC from achieving such a transformation. It then discusses a number of new opportunities, which, if appropriately exploited, could provide a means for SAARC to close the gap between the GEP vision of an effective and productive organization for regional cooperation, and its far less desirable reality.Item Open Regionalism and APEC: Rhetoric and Reality(Sameeksha, 2000) Kelegama, SamanAPEC has now functioned for more than one decade but its record is not very impressive. This article argues that the operational aspects of APEC have clearly highlighted the limitations of APEC's governing framework, i e, open regionalism. The paper shows that APEC's trade liberalisation strategy is a frail initiative and argues that APEC might be better-off focusing on deep economic integration issues.Item Bangkok Agreement and BIMSTEC: Crawling Regional Economic Groupings in Asia(2001) Kelegama, SamanBoth the Bangkok Agreement (BA) and Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) have offered opportunities for economic cooperation in the Asian region. Four countries that are (or were) associated with the former are members of the latter. The BA (formed in 1975) is a preferential trading arrangement (PTA) whereas BIMSTEC (formed in 1997) is a sectoral cooperation arrangement, but has announced its intention of moving to a PTA in the future. However, the results of both regional economic groupings have so far not been impressive. The BA did not produce the desired results due to inherent shortcomings in the Agreement and the ineffectiveness of the preferential system, inter alia: a) exclusion of nontariff barriers from the preferences; b) low product coverage by the preferential tariffs; and c) low preferential margins. Moreover, the PTA was not combined with direct measures for sectoral cooperation. Although the BIMSTEC emphasizes the latter, for these to be effective in the absence of a PTA, there has to be a high degree of commitment to the regional group by member countries, harmonization of standards, and an institutional framework. All these requirements are lacking in the BIMSTEC at present. BIMSTEC could have become a PTA if Thailand and Myanmar joined the BA but regional geo-politics and commitment to ASEAN have prevented this process. Surprisingly, BIMSTEC is considering a new PTA when a mechanism already exists under the BA. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.Item China as a Balancer in South Asia: An Economic Perspective with Special Reference to Sri Lanka(Stanford University Press, 2016, 2016) Kelegama, SamanThis chapter focuses on how the smaller South Asian countries view economic issues related to China's rise by using Sri Lanka as a case study.Item Does Leadership Matter in the Economic Reform Process? Liberalization and Governance in Sri Lanka, 1989-1993(Elsevier, 1997) Dunham, David; Kelegama, SamanGovernance assumptions of the East Asian miracle may not be a sufficient or a necessary condition for effective economic reform or for solid growth to emerge in other Asian economies. This paper argues that in Sri Lanka, where the state is not strong, where it is not well coordinated, and is neither cohesive nor disciplined in organizational terms, strong political leadership proved critical in the second wave of reform from 1989-93 - even if it was essentially illiberal in the process of implementation. Technical and political imperatives are seen to be interrelated and parts of a single reform package.