The president of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has appointed Prabhash Subasinghe, managing director of GRI, to the presidential task force for economic revival and poverty alleviation.

The task force has been created to establish a new economic agenda for Sri Lanka to promote exports in all sectors and uplift all local industries in a background where global trends have shifted due to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The Sri Lanka government has identified the need to create balanced social and economic development in the country, aligned with expectations by the United Nations such as environmental conservation, renewable energy and toxin-free food production, as well as the need to minimize poverty.

Among the many strategic thrusts of the task force, the need to identify economically favorable opportunities that have emerged in new global economic trends, and formulate mechanisms to promote value-added export products, ranks as one of the most important focus areas for the country, GRI says.