World Bank said it was ready to help the country with knowledge resources.
Sri Lanka is breaking a state monopoly on tertiary education and restoring education liberties of the people, particularly less affluent persons who could not afford to send their children to foreign universities.
Sri Lanka is recovering from a three-decade war which ended two years ago and is pursuing an economic framework which has a strong emphasis on making the country a regional services hub and pushing per capita income to 4000 US dollars by 2016.
"Sri Lanka's continued progress towards upper middle income status is critically dependent on a productive and highly skilled labor force, which is contingent on modernizing the education and health systems," World Bank's managing director Mahmoud Mohieldin said in a statement following a visit to the island.
"As it becomes a middle income country, Sri Lanka will face a new set of challenges, including ensuring very high quality education in computer and financia