Why Not Sri Lanka?

Walk through an island that has everything. Then watch nearly all of it leave. The purest graphite on earth. Sapphires that sit in the world's greatest museums. A spice that almost nobody else can grow. A harbour on one of the busiest sea lanes in the world. Eight World Heritage Sites. And every year, more qualified young people than the country knows what to do with. Nearly all of it leaves raw: the bark, the rock, the graduate. Why Not Sri Lanka? begins with a grandmother saying "Don't worry, the Queen will take care of you," and the question she could not answer: why not here? It travels to the places that found the answer, an island like ours that a Nobel laureate wrote off, a city-state that built itself from parts borrowed from everyone, a Swiss village that turned a mountain into an industry, and the Britain the author has called home for 23 years, and brings back the one thing they had and Sri Lanka still lacks. Then it hands you the list. At the back are 500 business ideas in 28 groups, each one startable by one person, one family or one small firm, from a village in Sri Lanka or a flat in London. Cinnamon, tea, gems and graphite. Tourism, the sea, software and the remote desk. Sri Lankans abroad, in both directions. Pick the one nearest to where you are. Inside: - What Sri Lanka already has, counted honestly, and what it earns from it today - What Sri Lankans have already built, at home and around the world - The mechanisms other countries used, from New Zealand's kiwifruit to Norway's oil fund, and which parts Sri Lanka can take - A plan in three phases: become credible, become investable, become developed - Sri Lanka House: one building that makes a Sri Lankan business world-ready - 500 ideas to start tomorrow, sorted by trade, with a guide to which suit where you are sitting This book is for every Sri Lankan, living in the country or far from it, who wants to see it succeed. It is written for people who love the place and would like to see what it could become. Fully referenced. About the author. Dr Maheshika Halbeisen left Sri Lanka at 20, the first in her family to go. A PhD chemist and Executive MBA with 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she is the author of the award-winning The Job Well Done. Also available in Sinhala on Sri Sinharaja.