ECONOMYNEXT – The World Bank Group has launched its Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Sri Lanka (2026–2030), committing 2 billion dollars in financing to drive private sector-led growth and bridge an employment deficit, Country Manager for Sri Lanka Gevorg Sargsyan said.
“In the next few years, we will provide about $2 billion of financing to the public and private sector to achieve these objectives. This also will mean mobilization of the private capital over $1.2 billion,” Sargsyan said.
These funds are to support a 7 percent growth rate and facilitate one million young people entering the workforce over the next decade.
The official launch of the framework took place at an event titled “Sri Lanka’s Next Chapter: Jobs, Growth, and Opportunity,” held at Trace Expert City Colombo. The event was organized in partnership with the University of Colombo.
While the island has stabilized remarkably since its 2022 collapse, Sargsyan said, structural issues still leave most future workers vulnerable.
“A million young people will enter the workforce in the coming years. But indeed, with the current pace of the economy, only one third of them are expected or guaranteed to have formal quality jobs,” Sargsyan said.
He noted that the five-year strategy will focus on four high-potential sectors: logistics, energy, tourism, and agribusiness.
During a subsequent panel discussion moderated by Gregory Smith, Manager of Country Economics at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), private sector leaders and policymakers warned that deep-seated domestic friction continues to block company scaling and workforce formalization.
Ajit Gunewardene, Chairman and Founder of PickMe, stressed that a lack of mid-stage scaling capital had prevented smaller firms from expanding past 50 employees.
“We need access to capital for growth-stage companies — not seed capital, and not bailout — stage funds for SOEs, which is where a lot of this money goes,” Gunewardene said.
Addressing the low female labor force participation rate, said to be 33 percent, Randhula De Silva, Founder and Chair of Good Life X, pointed to rigid, outdated work environments that fail to accommodate a modern care economy.
“The current rigidity keeps a lot of women and a lot of people who want flexible working away because work structures and these conditions are set through archaic models from the industrial era,” De Silva noted.
Yasas Hewage, Chairman of the Industrial Development Board (IDB), revealed that immediate institutional overhauls are underway to capture future job markets.
“We are rewriting the SME policy,” Hewage said, adding that the IDB is re-adopting its 57-year-old operating act to align with modern economic changes.
Dhananath Fernando, Chief Executive Officer of the Advocata Institute, cautioned against ignoring macro-level factors and underscored that monetary stability must underpin any sector-specific targeting.
“Without monetary stability, everything would be nothing,” Fernando said. He urged youth to understand macroeconomics, noting that price and import controls ultimately fail to protect the economy.
The 2026–2030 framework represents a coordinated push by the World Bank and its other agencies, the IFC, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) to transition Sri Lanka away from fragile, debt-financed models toward a competitive, private sector-led recovery. (Colombo/June23/2026)