Beyond Cryptocurrency – A Blockchain-Led Intervention For Sri Lankan Economy

In July this year, Bloomberg reported Sri Lanka as the national economy most at risk for defaulting sovereign debts in the Asia-Pacific region, with a 28 percent likelihood based on its debt default probability scale.

- Dilshan Senaratne

Since then, we have succeeded in clearing the US $ 1 billion bond pay-out to investors but the economic condition isn’t showing signs of marked improvement in the near term.

Whichever side of the political spectrum you may be on, it’s prudent to first recognise the precarious position we have put ourselves in as a sovereign economy, with a large foreign debt hemorrhaging the foreign reserves of the country.

To consider the technology industry as a catalyst for economic growth in Sri Lanka is hardly new territory. As per SLASSCOM, in 2019, the broader Sri Lankan technology (ICT-BPM) industry generated US $ 1.5 billion in revenue at a 13 percent CAGR (2013-2019). The generated revenue positions the industry as the fourth largest exporter in the local economy, with a 29 percent contribution towards total service exports.

As impressive as the technology growth story has been in Sri Lanka, the timely figure that should be considered with urgent priority is the 12 percent contribution the industry makes to the country’s service-related foreign currency inflow. To present things a different way, the industry’s potential to generate foreign income should be assessed in careful detail as a companion to our hopes of an invigorated tourism sector.

Emerging blockchain opportunity

The flourishing technology industry of Sri Lanka is by all accounts an impressive one. Considering the intrinsically dynamic and trailblazing nature of the global technology market that Sri Lanka services, one could rest assured that potential for growth is emphatically being leveraged.