WHY NOTSRI LANKA?
An island with everything, and the one thing that would make it rich.
For every Sri Lankan, living in the country or far from it, who wants to see it succeed.
Twelve countries, one island
Brought home from around the world
Dr Maheshika Halbeisen left Sri Lanka at 20. She has lived in Britain for 23 years, married into Switzerland, and spent 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working with some of the largest companies in the world. This book is what she brought home: how other countries turned what they had into something that stays, and which parts could work in Sri Lanka.
Switzerland
In parts of rural Switzerland, a farm will put a small refrigerator at the edge of the property, by the road. There is nobody there. There is no camera.
Ch. Six
Zermatt
You cannot drive into Zermatt. And the taxis themselves are worth a paragraph, because they were not a policy. They were a family.
Ch. Five
Mauritius
An economist who went on to win the Nobel Prize studied it, and wrote that it would probably fail. It reached high income in 2020.
Ch. Ten
Norway
A cold northern country that worked out the rules for its oil before the oil money arrived, which turns out to be the entire trick.
Ch. Eleven
Denmark
A nation of dairy farmers who became wealthy because somebody in the 1880s thought carefully about who ought to own the creamery.
Ch. Eleven
New Zealand
New Zealand grows kiwifruit. So do Italy, Chile, Greece and a dozen other countries. New Zealand earns something else, and the reason is a law.
Ch. Eleven
Ireland
Within a decade the country that had exported its young for a century was gaining people again.
Ch. Fourteen
Japan
In 1950 "Made in Japan" meant cheap and shoddy. Within a generation Japanese goods had a new name abroad, built with tools that cost almost nothing.
Ch. Eleven
Singapore
The country Sri Lankans reach for as the model never copied a model.
Ch. Eleven
Venice
A city built on mudflats, with no farms, no fresh water and no minerals, became the richest place in Europe. Then the people who had got rich on it closed the door.
Ch. Eleven
India
An hour from Colombo by air there is a country of 1.46 billion people.
Ch. Twelve
Britain
Britain is not the cautionary tale people expect. It is rich. The courts still work. That is exactly why it belongs in this book.
Ch. NineNot a copy of anywhere. Each country gives one part, and each part has its chapter. About the book
Five hundred places to start
Where are you sitting?
The book ends with 500 businesses that one person, one family or one small company can start without waiting for anybody. Start from where you are.
I live in Sri Lanka
Start with the nearest place visitors already come to. Ideas for a skill in Colombo, land or a kitchen in the districts, and time at home.
I live abroad
How to help Sri Lanka from where you are: as its customer, its inspector, its distributor, its investor, or by coming home.
I want to start a business
Six questions, one minute, ten ideas that fit your life. For anyone who loves the island, Sri Lankan or not.
For leaders and institutions
For a ministry, a council, a chamber, a school or a temple: the mechanisms other countries used, and the ideas by region.
Inside the book
What the island already has, and already built
A few of the things the book found. Every number is from the book, with the document behind it one click away.
Qualified for university in 2024; around 45,000 got a place.
"In 2024, 177,588 of those young people qualified for university admission." [1, 2, 5, 32] Chapter OneVietnam's cassia, against $247 million for Sri Lanka's true cinnamon.
"Vietnam earned $280 million selling cassia, which is the coarse red bark sold as cinnamon in most of the world." [7, 8] IntroductionLondon Stock Exchange trades matched by software written in Malabe.
"From February 2011 the trades on the London Stock Exchange have been matched by software written in Malabe, and the exchanges of Johannesburg and..." [67, 68, 69] Chapter ThreeLives saved by Sri Lanka's pesticide bans, now cited worldwide.
"The best estimate is that the bans saved about 93,000 lives over 20 years, at a cost of less than $50 per life." [84, 85, 86] Chapter ThreeEarned by apparel and textiles, the industry that climbed from cut-make-trim.
"In 2025 apparel and textiles together earned $4.9 billion, more than a quarter of everything the country sells abroad." [42] Chapter FourThe Sri Lankan Star of India, in New York.
"The Star of India, at 563 carats one of the largest gem-quality blue star sapphires known, sits in New York." [101] Chapter Three
The book
An island that has everything, and sells all of it raw
"Don't worry. The Queen will take care of you."
My grandmother said that to me when I was 20 and asked her why Britain was the right place to go. She never once left the island. She was right. The book is about why she could not say the same about home.
The five hundred ideas on this site are its appendix, given a page each so that somebody can start one.
The evidence
Every number in the book, with its source
383 documents, from the Central Bank and the University Grants Commission to the Library of Congress, numbered once and listed with the chapters that use them.
Open the library
Five hundred and one
The next five hundred are not mine to write
The list is the country's. If you know a place to start that is not here, send it, with the mechanism, and it goes on the site with your name if you want it there.
Send an idea