With the 2025 elections seemingly behind us, the time for political showmanship is over. The six-month-old National People’s Power (NPP) government has no excuse now: it must urgently roll out a national strategic plan that outlines how it intends to govern, grow the economy, and deliver results for the rest of its term. Vision alone won’t suffice. What Sri Lanka needs is a full-spectrum roadmap to avoid spiraling into another cycle of ad hoc decision-making and repeated crises.
Sri Lanka’s challenges are more than tourism-dependent recovery. While tourism is vital, the nation also needs to seriously ramp up export diversification, prioritize import substitution, and tap into rising niches such as medical tourism, golf tourism, and tech-driven remote services. Achieving any of this demands a shift from reactionary politics to medium- and long-term planning embedded across ministerial portfolios.
The issue? Many ministries operate without cohesive strategic frameworks. The few that exist are often outdated or lack inter-ministerial coordination. The government must enforce a rule: within the next three months, every ministry should submit a five-year strategic plan, especially since half a year has already passed under the new administration. Existing strategies must be reviewed, refreshed, and realigned to current realities.
Strategic governance is not just about buzzwords it’s about systemic change. A government that anchors its actions in clear strategy promotes professional accountability, earns public trust, and reshapes the political culture. As Sri Lanka prepares to restart its debt repayments in 2028, time is of the essence. Whether the country thrives or declines will depend on how well it plans and acts in the next three years.
This also requires a shift in the nation’s management mindset. Business-as-usual cannot deliver transformation. The NPP must set the benchmark in structured planning so that others are compelled to follow suit. Once successful models are in place, even political opponents will be forced to adopt similar governance structures to remain relevant.
Albert Einstein once remarked that insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy is the natural outcome of repeating broken systems. To break free, the country must embrace modern, measurable governance models that emphasize learning from mistakes rather than blindly repeating them.
Strategic plans are not mere documents—they are roadmaps with detailed goals, resource allocation strategies, and step-by-step action blueprints. They embed discipline into government and prevent short-termism from derailing progress. Ministries must lead by publishing and monitoring these plans, ensuring public access and transparency.
A strong strategic plan begins with a SWOT analysis an honest assessment of internal strengths, weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. From there, it builds:
- Vision: Where do we want to be in five years?
- Mission: Why do we exist and what is our purpose?
- Goals & Objectives: What must we achieve, and how will we measure it?
- Strategies & Action Plans: What is the path, and how will we get there?
- Budgets: What will it cost?
- Responsibility: Who is accountable?
While some agencies already have plans the Digital Sri Lanka 2030 strategy, the Sri Lanka Customs Strategic Plan 2024–2028, and the Export Development Board’s goal to grow exports to $31.3 billion by 2027 many others, like the Department of Agriculture or the Tourism Development Authority, either lack updated blueprints or haven’t even started drafting new ones.
This lack of strategic focus is painfully visible in areas like road safety. Two deadly accidents in Gerandiella and Aladeniya were preventable, yet nothing substantial has been done. Despite repeated public outcries, poor traffic law enforcement and underwhelming driver education persist. Road safety should’ve been central to the much-touted “Clean Sri Lanka” campaign, but the initiative has yet to deliver meaningful change.
Governance in Sri Lanka continues to be bogged down by two chronic flaws: lack of transparency and institutional paralysis. Policy decisions often get diluted or discarded due to an absence of follow-through capacity within the state bureaucracy. If ministers and bureaucrats both lack the tools and training to execute complex policy, outcomes default to knee-jerk, politically safe decisions rather than bold long-term action.
This is precisely why Sri Lanka must embed a strategic action framework across every tier of government—from local councils to ministries. As the National Democratic Institute explains, good strategy is about defining clear goals, plotting the path, and using evidence to make adaptive, rational decisions. It’s time Sri Lanka made that the standard.
In politics, good ideas don’t win on merit they need the backing of sound strategy. In a country where reactive governance dominates, political parties must start treating strategy as essential, not optional. Without it, even the best intentions dissolve into short-term theatrics.
According to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, strategic planning cannot be delegated, copied, or imported. Political leaders must learn to craft their own. Parties must stop lurching from one crisis to the next and instead balance short-term needs with medium- and long-term development goals. This is the only path to credible governance.
Currently, the lack of such planning means that even the government’s most basic aspirations remain fuzzy. There’s no clarity. No roadmap. And no coordinated action. The result? Sri Lanka drifts through another cycle of broken promises and voter fatigue.
With the next general election still years away, the NPP has a window of opportunity. It must now present a five-year master plan that outlines how it intends to govern, what it aims to deliver, and how it plans to do so. The public is tired of visionary speeches without execution. They want delivery. This plan must align with the President’s manifesto, highlight key performance indicators, and give ministries a tangible framework to work from.
Without that, the NPP will lose its momentum and worse, Sri Lanka will lose yet another chance to fix what’s broken.
