Sri Lanka's new cabinet takes shape as president keeps finance role
Sri Lankaʼs government gets new shape with **Anura Kumara Dissanayake** keeping finance ministry while forming fresh cabinet. Recent election winner aims to push-through economic fixes while managing IMF deal
In a major govt shake-up Anura Kumara Dissanayake kept his finance minister role while putting together Sri Lankaʼs new cabinet on nov 18th. His left-wing group got big win last week taking 159 seats in the 225-seat parliament (which shows peoples strong support for change)
The new setup includes Harini Amarasuriya - a smart social science expert with Edinburgh uni degree - as prime-minister; sheʼll also handle education stuff. Vijitha Herath got foreign affairs job in this re-organized team
This power comes with accountability to the people and should be wielded with humility restraint and boundaries
The country needs quick fixes: IMF team is checking progress on their $2.9B program in Colombo now; about $337M could come soon. The govt must deal with $12.5B debt fix-up while making economy better after it went down 7.3% back in 2022
The new parliament meets on thursday to pick its speaker - then Dissanayake will show his plans. Heʼs got tough job ahead: making new budget cutting taxes helping people but not messing up IMF deal. Its interesting that heʼs first non-family politician to lead in decades here
