New Executive Director at Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (LKI)

August 22, 2018 (LBO) - Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI).  The institute is Sri Lanka's premier think tank, named after Sri Lanka's long time Tamil Foreign Minister who was assassinated by the LTTE. Official statement follows: "LKI’s Dr. Dinusha Panditaratne is taking on a new role as Nonresident Fellow, effective 16 August 2018. She will continue to be part of the leadership team of LKI. The Board of Management of LKI has appointed Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja as Executive Director (Actg). He joined LKI as Chair of the Global Economy Programme (supported by Dilmah) in July 2017, a position which he will continue to hold." Dr. Wignaraja's bio as taken from LKI website: Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja joined LKI as Chair of the Global Economy Programme (supported by Dilmah) in July 2017. His inaugural lecture was on “A Recovering Global Economy? The Dynamics of China and India in the Future of Global Growth.” He also serves as a member of the Task Force on the Freedom of Navigation in the Indian Ocean, chaired by the Hon. Prime Minister, and a member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Prior to his appointment at LKI, he worked at a senior level in international organisations and the private sector in Asia and the UK over the last twenty-five years. He was based at the Asian Development Bank in Manila since 2004 and was most recently Advisor in the Office of the ADB Chief Economist in Manila.

He was previously the Director of Research of the ADB Institute in Tokyo and Global Head of Trade and Competitiveness at Maxwell Stamp PLC in London. He has also held positions at the Commonwealth Secretariat, the OECD, Oxford University, the Overseas Development Institute and the United Nations. He has also been a consultant to many international organisations including DFID, DFAT, USAID, SIDA, UNIDO, ILO, OECD and the World Bank. He has directed projects in over 30 developing countries (including Asia, Africa and Latin America) and has been a technical lead on government-led projects with the UK, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

He has a DPhil in economics from Oxford University, and a BSc in economics from the London School of Economics. Dr. Wignaraja has published 19 books and monographs on trade, competitiveness, regional infrastructure, macroeconomics and economic development, including: “Production Networks in East Asia: Industry and Firm-level Analysis” “Asia’s Free Trade Agreements: How is Business Responding?” “Connecting Asia: Infrastructure for Linking South and Southeast Asia” “Trade Liberalization in Sri Lanka: Exports, Technology and Industrial Policy” “The Post-war Evolution of Development Thinking” “Competitiveness Strategy in Developing Countries”