Lankan travails

The Sri Lankan government has approved a proposal to set up an institute aimed at educating parliamentarians and officials to help them make ‘informed decisions’ on economic and trade affairs, a senior official said on Tuesday, as the island nation was grappling with the unprecedented economic turmoil.Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told reporters that the cabinet approved the proposal of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to set up the Sri Lanka Economic and Trade Institute.This will help them to make informed decisions on policy formulation, he said.The legal draftsman would begin work to compile a draft bill, he said. Sri Lanka plunged into its worst economic crisis with the country declaring its first-ever sovereign debt default early this year Analysts said the crisis could have been averted if informed decisions had been taken around 2020.Current foreign minister Ali Sabry recently said the parliamentarians had not been adequately aware of the looming crisis despite warnings from many quarters.The political authority and senior fiscal officials have faced accusations of ignorance which prevented them from taking informed decisions such as making a timely approach to the IMF for a bail out.