• Govt. to also remove Int’l Trade Office, Nat’l Productivity Commission
• Targets can be taken over by Public Financial Management Act

The Government expects to remove the economic targets from the Economic Transformation Act (ETA) and bring in a new state-owned enterprises (SOE) and public-private partnership (PPP) law, Senior Economic Advisor to President Duminda Hulangamuwa said.

Speaking to DeranaTV on Monday (24), he said that the government is expecting to amend the ETA by removing the economic targets mentioned in the first chapter of the Act and also remove the Office for International Trade and National Productivity Commission.

“By bringing the ETA alone, the economy cannot be developed, it’s just one step toward development,” he said.

He said achieving the economic targets mentioned in the ETA can be taken over by the already existing Public Financial Management (PFM) Act.

Some of the economic targets mentioned in ETA include a debt-to-GDP ratio target of under 95% by 2032, an annual GDP growth rate of at least 5% by 2027, and a female labour force participation rate of 50% by 2040.

He noted that President Dissanayake is of the view that the establishment of the five institutions in the second chapter of the ETA should be brought in through separate acts.

He said that the focus of the ETA should be to strengthen the Board of Investment (BOI) and make it an investor promotion arm through the Economic Commission.

Moreover, he said that the government intends to bring all commercial SOEs under one holding company and then to list the holding company in the stock exchange in the future.

He added that an SOE law will be brought in to build the holding company and the cabinet will soon appoint a cabinet sub-committee to formulate the law.

Further, he added that a new PPP law is expected to be brought in by May, which will include the infrastructure projects of the government.