A multipolar alternative policy path for the new president.
Sri Lanka, like many other countries, is currently at a crossroads between the rising multipolar world and the unipolar one.Sri Lanka, like most poor countries, already has stakeholder interests in the unipolar globe.Sri Lanka has the biggest trade reliance on the West when compared to our Asian counterparts.They have to decide whether to make a long-term commitment to moving towards a multipolar world.Which even present a real-world policy alternative for Sri Lanka.The majority of Sri Lanka's policy failures are the result of past governments' incapacity to pursue that long-term route.The immobility stemmed from existing linkages to the unipolar world and a lack of awareness of the developing global economic trend.This is where Mexico, Bolivia, and several other poor countries differ from Sri Lanka.These countries were able to build long-term relationships with the multipolar globe, and part of their political stability is now correlated with the material advancement of their economic policies.
Below are some policy recommendations for the newly elected president.
1.BRICS membership provides Sri Lanka with an economic alternative because the BRICS bloc has preferential access to countries such as China.It also has its own bank, the New Development Bank, which provides developmental financing.Most importantly, this will add new dimensions to some of our geopolitical challenges, particularly those in our neighbourhood.
2.Enter ASEAN and RCEP - This is already being negotiated. Sri Lanka should enter the trade agreement and develop a separate policy on how we may benefit from it.The FTA policy should be designed in such a way that it benefits the country's industrialisation development.
3.SCO membership adds an extra layer of security and regional cooperation to our current international relations.
4.FTA with China - This is already being negotiated, and the government should expedite the process and use the FTA into a tool to aid industrialisation.If an appropriate policy equilibrium is achieved, certain monetary arrangements with China may be possible (cross-border settlement corridor, for example).
