{"id":208,"date":"2015-12-10T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T15:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bec.mgt.sjp.ac.dev\/?p=208"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:22:06","slug":"4th-international-conference-of-sri-lanka-forum-of-university-economists-slfue-sri-lanka-economics-research-conference-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/4th-international-conference-of-sri-lanka-forum-of-university-economists-slfue-sri-lanka-economics-research-conference-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"4th International Conference of Sri Lanka Forum of University Economists (SLFUE) \u2013 Sri Lanka Economics Research Conference 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>\n  .bec-slfue-2015 {\n    --bec-primary: #4E0205;\n    --bec-secondary: #8A0007;\n    --bec-text: #222222;\n    --bec-muted: #555555;\n    --bec-border: #e5e5e5;\n    --bec-light: #f8f5f5;\n    max-width: 1100px;\n    margin: 0 auto;\n    color: var(--bec-text);\n    font-family: inherit;\n    line-height: 1.75;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-hero {\n    position: relative;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    margin-bottom: 28px;\n    padding: 42px 36px;\n    border-radius: 16px;\n    background: linear-gradient(135deg, #4E0205 0%, #8A0007 100%);\n    color: #ffffff;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-hero::after {\n    content: \"\";\n    position: absolute;\n    top: -70px;\n    right: -50px;\n    width: 220px;\n    height: 220px;\n    border: 35px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08);\n    border-radius: 50%;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-hero h2 {\n    position: relative;\n    z-index: 1;\n    margin: 0 0 10px;\n    color: #ffffff;\n    font-size: clamp(27px, 4vw, 40px);\n    line-height: 1.25;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-hero p {\n    position: relative;\n    z-index: 1;\n    max-width: 760px;\n    margin: 0;\n    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.92);\n    font-size: 17px;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-details {\n    display: grid;\n    grid-template-columns: repeat(3, minmax(0, 1fr));\n    gap: 16px;\n    margin-bottom: 28px;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-detail {\n    padding: 20px;\n    border: 1px solid var(--bec-border);\n    border-top: 4px solid var(--bec-secondary);\n    border-radius: 12px;\n    background: #ffffff;\n    box-shadow: 0 5px 18px rgba(78, 2, 5, 0.06);\n    transition: transform 0.25s ease, box-shadow 0.25s ease;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-detail:hover {\n    transform: translateY(-3px);\n    box-shadow: 0 10px 25px rgba(78, 2, 5, 0.12);\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-detail strong {\n    display: block;\n    margin-bottom: 4px;\n    color: var(--bec-primary);\n    font-size: 14px;\n    text-transform: uppercase;\n    letter-spacing: 0.5px;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-detail span {\n    color: var(--bec-text);\n    font-size: 16px;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-section {\n    margin-bottom: 22px;\n    padding: 28px 30px;\n    border: 1px solid var(--bec-border);\n    border-left: 5px solid var(--bec-primary);\n    border-radius: 12px;\n    background: #ffffff;\n    transition: border-color 0.25s ease, box-shadow 0.25s ease;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-section:hover {\n    border-color: rgba(138, 0, 7, 0.45);\n    border-left-color: var(--bec-secondary);\n    box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(78, 2, 5, 0.08);\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-section h3 {\n    margin: 0 0 14px;\n    color: var(--bec-primary);\n    font-size: 22px;\n    line-height: 1.35;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-section p {\n    margin: 0 0 16px;\n    color: var(--bec-text);\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-section p:last-child {\n    margin-bottom: 0;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-highlight {\n    margin: 26px 0;\n    padding: 24px 28px;\n    border-radius: 12px;\n    background: var(--bec-light);\n    color: var(--bec-text);\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-highlight strong {\n    color: var(--bec-secondary);\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-themes {\n    display: grid;\n    grid-template-columns: repeat(2, minmax(0, 1fr));\n    gap: 10px 18px;\n    margin: 18px 0 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    list-style: none;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-themes li {\n    position: relative;\n    padding: 11px 14px 11px 34px;\n    border: 1px solid var(--bec-border);\n    border-radius: 8px;\n    background: #ffffff;\n    color: #333333;\n  }\n\n  .bec-slfue-themes li::before {\n    content: \"\";\n    position: absolute;\n    top: 18px;\n    left: 15px;\n    width: 8px;\n    height: 8px;\n    border-radius: 50%;\n    background: var(--bec-secondary);\n  }\n\n  @media (max-width: 767px) {\n    .bec-slfue-hero {\n      padding: 32px 24px;\n      border-radius: 12px;\n    }\n\n    .bec-slfue-details,\n    .bec-slfue-themes {\n      grid-template-columns: 1fr;\n    }\n\n    .bec-slfue-section {\n      padding: 23px 21px;\n    }\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<section class=\"bec-slfue-2015\">\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-hero\">\n    <h2>Inclusive Growth towards Economic Transformation<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka Forum of University Economists 2015\n    <\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-details\">\n    <div class=\"bec-slfue-detail\">\n      <strong>Dates<\/strong>\n      <span>20 and 21 November 2015<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"bec-slfue-detail\">\n      <strong>Venue<\/strong>\n      <span>Hotel Janaki, Colombo 05<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"bec-slfue-detail\">\n      <strong>Secretariat<\/strong>\n      <span>Department of Business Economics<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-section\">\n    <h3>About the Conference<\/h3>\n    <p>\n      The Department of Business Economics, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, served as the Secretariat of the Sri Lanka Forum of University Economists (SLFUE) for 2015.\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      Established in 2012, SLFUE is a network of departments and units of economics within Sri Lanka\u2019s state university system. The forum conducts quarterly meetings at different universities, while its Secretariat organises an annual conference. It also publishes the <em>Sri Lanka Journal of Economic Research<\/em> (SLJER), featuring research presented and discussed through the forum.\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      The 2015 conference was held on 20 and 21 November at Hotel Janaki, Colombo 05, under the timely theme, <strong>\u201cInclusive Growth towards Economic Transformation.\u201d<\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-section\">\n    <h3>Inauguration Ceremony<\/h3>\n    <p>\n      The two-day conference commenced with an inauguration ceremony graced by Prof. P. S. M. Gunaratne, Vice Chairman of the University Grants Commission; Prof. Sampath Amaratunge, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Guest of Honour; Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and keynote speaker; and Dr. U. Anura Kumara, Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce.\n    <\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-section\">\n    <h3>Economic Forum<\/h3>\n    <p>\n      The inauguration ceremony was followed by an Economic Forum featuring senior representatives from the government, international organisations, national institutions, and the private sector.\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      Dr. Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, represented the government. The panel also included a Senior Economist from the World Bank, the Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund, an Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, a former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, and a Senior Economist from the Centre for Poverty Analysis.\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      The forum was moderated by Prof. Sampath Amaratunge, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. It concluded with a question-and-answer session during which the audience raised timely and critical questions for the panellists.\n    <\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-highlight\">\n    The conference received <strong>85 extended abstracts<\/strong> from local and international authors. Following the review process, <strong>36 papers<\/strong> were selected for inclusion in the conference proceedings, which were launched during the inauguration ceremony.\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-section\">\n    <h3>Plenary and Technical Sessions<\/h3>\n    <p>\n      The second day began with a plenary session conducted by Mr. Tadateru Hayashi, Senior Country Economist of the Asian Development Bank. The plenary was followed by paper presentation sessions featuring authors from different universities and countries.\n    <\/p>\n\n    <p>The presentations were organised under eight thematic areas:<\/p>\n\n    <ul class=\"bec-slfue-themes\">\n      <li>Contemporary Studies<\/li>\n      <li>Labour Mobility<\/li>\n      <li>Agro-Business Management<\/li>\n      <li>Agricultural Efficiency<\/li>\n      <li>Entrepreneurship and the Knowledge Economy<\/li>\n      <li>Development and Sustainability Studies<\/li>\n      <li>International Trade and Finance<\/li>\n      <li>Monetary Policy Analysis<\/li>\n    <\/ul>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"bec-slfue-section\">\n    <h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n    <p>\n      The conference concluded on the evening of 21 November 2015, receiving positive feedback from its participants and contributing to academic and policy-oriented dialogue on inclusive growth and Sri Lanka\u2019s economic transformation.\n    <\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" data-id=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.4-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.4-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.4-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.4-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" data-id=\"210\" src=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.2-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.2-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.2-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.2-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"546\" data-id=\"209\" src=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.1-1024x546.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.1-1024x546.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.1-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.1-768x410.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" data-id=\"213\" src=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.7-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.7-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.7-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.7-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" data-id=\"212\" src=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.5-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.5-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.5-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.5-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Inclusive Growth towards Economic Transformation Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka Forum of University Economists 2015 Dates 20 and 21 November 2015 Venue Hotel Janaki, Colombo 05 Secretariat Department of Business Economics About the Conference The Department of Business Economics, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, served as the Secretariat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,29,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-image-gallery","category-research-center-for-business-economics-and-development-studies-news","category-top-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SLERC-2015_day1.2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7odTZ-3m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12792,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/12792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgt.sjp.ac.lk\/bec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}