SLFUE holds first international confab

The first international economic research conference organised by Sri Lanka Forum of University Economists (SLFUE) will be held on November 29 and 30 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo.

Dr. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan of the Department of Economics, University of Colombo said the SLFUE was formed in February this year with the objective to promote economic research in universities, encourage academics and students of research, improve the quality of research carried out by universities and focus on timely economic issues in the country and provide essential information to policymakers.

SLFUE is an organisation that represents the business economics and agriculture economics departments of Sri Lankan universities. This year the Economics Department of the Colombo University holds the chairmanship of the SLFUE and it will rotate among other universities thereafter. The research conference will be held annually and it will be organised by the university that holds the chairmanship of the SLFUE.

There are around 20 departments of economics in the national university system coming under different faculties, and SLFUE and the research conference will facilitate to jointly discuss their academic and research contributions and disseminate their findings.

There are a large number of professionals held in high esteem, and the proposed conference therefore will be rich in theoretical and academic content and in policy relevance of their deliberations, Dr. Gunaruwan said.

There is only a single Professional annual forum of Economists currently held in the country, which is organized by the Sri Lanka Economic Association, but it cannot accommodate the large number of academics and researchers in Economics attached to the Sri Lankan University system, even if the student community is not included.

Therefore, an annual conference, dedicated to discuss and deliberate the work done by the academic staff and research students in the national University system is a long felt need, he said.

Dr. Gunaruwan said that over 110 research papers have been received from local and foreign universities, and of them 50 papers will be shortlisted and presented at the technical sessions of the conference. The conference will be inaugurated on November 29, by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama and the chief guest will be the Secretary to the Finance Ministry Dr. P.B. Jayasundara. The guest of honour will be the Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Prof. W.B. Lakshman.

On the first day of the conference a series of presentations will be held on the theme, "stimulate economic development through public investment on infrastructure". The presenters are lead economists of the World Bank for the South Asia region, executive director of the IPS Dr. Saman Kelegama, Dr. Rohan Samarajeewa and invited foreign academics. A political economic discussion will also be held on November 29 with the participation of the Education Minister Bandula Gunawardana, Dr. Harsha de Silva, a representative from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and Udaya Gammanpila of the Jatika Hela Urumaya. This forum is open to the public. The University of Colombo and SLFUE websites provide links for registration for technical sessions.

- GW