In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

In Sri Lanka’s war-torn North, business owners struggle to rebuild and revive their enterprises after a decades-long civil war once brought these local economies to a halt. Now, signs of economic recovery are emerging. Until now, however, insight from business owners themselves on the state of their business and economic environments, challenges, and opportunities for growth was largely nonexistent. To fill this gap, The Asia Foundation’s Sri Lanka office recently completed in-depth interviews with a cross-section of local businesses and local authorities in three towns in the Northern Province: Jaffna, Vavuniya, and Mannar, for their opinions on these issues and more. The findings are now available on the Foundation’s website. Similar studies of 12 more towns in the Eastern, Central, Uva, and Southern Provinces are forthcoming.