Echelon Magazine - February 2023

In this issue

We are all complicit!

For decades (some) economists have been exhaustive in their prescient warnings about the twin deficit problem. However, their prophesies about this economic crisis went unheeded, as if they were under an Apollonian curse.
There was never an urgency to deal with the problem, and today Sri Lanka is a defaulter with a junk credit score that cannot manage its affairs. In this, we are all complicit.
After all, the zeitgeist has only recently manifested its reprehension of politicians and their ilk, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, and waste. Have not the citizens let themselves be held to ransom by a bloated, coddled, and egregiously inefficient public sector? The gradual reversal of trade reforms of the late 70s ruined our prospects for FDI and export growth. Instead of striving to lift all the boats, have we not pursued policies that only sank Sri Lanka deeper into serfdom (in a profoundly Hayekian sense)? We produce several graphs (please see pages 22 to 26) that tell an important-yet-banal story people are tired of hearing. However, looking at these graphs, at which point should we have launched an Aragalaya to get off the aimless and senseless economic ride post-independence? What do you think?
Even as we mark the 75th year of independence, we are worse off because of our individual choices, as the economists featured in this edition point out.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.