Lal R. Jayawardena ( Sinhala:ලාල් ජයවර්ධන) (1935–2004) was a noted

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n economist and diplomat. He was the first director of the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) (1985–1993) and Sri Lankan Treasury Secretary in the 1970s. Jayawardena had served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (1978–82) and Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland (1999–2000). He was an Economic Adviser to the Sri Lankan President and Deputy Chairman of the Sri Lankan National Development Council. As the Treasury Secretary, he was also instrumental in the reform package that opened up the Sri Lanka economy in the mid-1970s and he chaired a study group on Indo-Sri Lanka Economic Cooperation, whose final report of formed the basis of the Indo-Sri Lanka Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (1998). He was also the Second Vice-Chairman of the

Group of 24 The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development, or The Group of 24 (G-24) was established in 1971 as a chapter of the Group of 77 in order to help coordinate the positions of developing countries on ...

. Born to N. U. Jayawardena the former Governor of the

Central Bank of Ceylon The Central Bank of Sri Lanka ( CBSL; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව, Sri Lanka Maha Bankuwa) is the monetary authority of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1950 under the Monetary Law Act No.58 of 1949 (MLA), it is a ...

and Amybelle Millicent Jayawardena; he was educated at the

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janua ...

, where he was a contemporary of Gamini Seneviratne and Chris Pinto. Jayawardena graduated from

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

in Economic Tripos and went on to gain his PhD from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. During his time at Cambridge, his contemporaries were

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

Richard Layard Peter Richard Grenville Layard, Baron Layard FBA (born 15 March 1934) is a British labour economist, currently working as programme director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Layard was Senior Research ...

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 ...

, Mahbub ul Haque,

Jagdish Bhagwati Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati (born July 26, 1934) is an Indian-born naturalized American economist and one of the most influential trade theorists of his generation. He is a University Professor of economics and law at Columbia University and a Sen ...

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

and

Geoff Harcourt Geoffrey Colin Harcourt (27 June 1931 – 7 December 2021) was an Australian academic economist and leading member of the post-Keynesian school. He studied at the University of Melbourne and then at King's College, Cambridge. Biography After ...

; he was also a member of the

Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

Lal Jayawardena: crafting development policy
He was married to Dr. Kumari Jayawardene.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayawardane, Lal Development economists Sinhalese civil servants Sri Lankan diplomats Sri Lankan economists High Commissioners of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to the European Economic Community Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Belgium Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Luxembourg Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to the Netherlands Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Ireland Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of King's College, Cambridge 1935 births 2004 deaths Permanent secretaries of Sri Lanka

See also

References