Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving extreme poverty and is on track to meet most of the other MDGs, outperforming other South Asian countries. Sri Lanka's poverty head count index was 4.1% by 2016. Since the end of the three-decade civil war, Sri Lanka has begun focusing on long-term strategic and structural development challenges as it strives to transition to an upper middle income country. Sri Lanka also faces a challenges in social inclusion, governance and sustainability. Services accounted for 58.2% of Sri Lanka's economy in 2019 up from 54.6% in 2010, industry 27.4% up from 26.4% a decade earlier and agriculture 7.4%. Though there is a competitive export agricultural sector, technological advances have been slow to enter the protected domestic sector. Sri Lanka is the largest solid and industrial tyres manufacturing centre in the world and has an apparel sector which is moving up the value chain. But rising trade protection over the past decade has also caused concern over the resurgence of inward looking policies. In services, ports and airports are helping make the country a shipping and aviation hub. Port of Colombo is the largest transshipment hub in South Asia. There is growing software and information technology sector which is competitive and is open to global competition. Tourism is a fast expanding area. Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka the best destination to visit in 2019 and Travel+Leisure the best island. Sri Lanka's top export destinations are the United States, United Kingdom and India. China, India and the UAE are the main import partners.