ABSTRACT
From the late 1970s onwards, overall societal development in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was strongly influenced by economic liberalisation and structural adjustment policies. In Sri Lanka, this process started radically with a change of government in 1977, bringing the UNP back into power, and was reinvigorated in the second half of the 1980s as well as after 1995 (Gunatillake 1999). Likewise, in Bangladesh, first attempts to open the economy were made in 1977, when General Ziaur Rahman, the new President, began to promote a mixed economy. His initiatives were continued under General Ershad in the 1980s, and were even intensified in the 1990s, when privatisation was increased, import restrictions were reduced and the economy was opened to foreign investors, thus leading to accelerated economic growth (Quddus and Rashid 2000, 78ff).
