Strategic Industrial Policies for Economic Development in Sri Lanka (Lessons from South Korea)

Abstract

During 1960s Sri Lanka and Korea were earmarked almost similar positions in terms of economic, social and political conditions. However Korea gained a rapid economic development by introduction and implementation of new policies in their industrialization process while Sri Lanka was right away from its path. Therefore, this study investigates the industrial policies adopted by Sri Lanka since its independence and examines the impact and relevance of those policies and identifies the weaknesses and failures during implementation and also tries to compare with strategic industrial policies that Korea has experimented in its rapid industrial development process. This study considered the development plans setup by Korea during its development process. In here, I have developed a conceptual framework to address the issues I found in my investigations of industrial policy adoptions of Sri Lanka. Finally the study itself express certain suggestions which Sri Lanka needs to be improved to gain a rapid improvement through industrial development by learning lessons from the strategic industrial policies adopted by Korea.