Item in THE ECONOMIST, 6 Sep 2025, entitled “The Sri Lankan government’s honeymoon is nearly over” … & sent to me by Jayantha Somasundaram of Canberra; while the highlights are my imposition
Initial popularity: OPENED IN AUGUST with the stated ambition of making Sri Lanka “India’s Macau”, the City of Dreams development in downtown Colombo houses a casino, luxury hotels, high-end shops and a champagne-and-cocktail bar “floating amid the clouds”. The gleaming but for now largely deserted halls of the vast complex seem a symbol of renewal: a far cry from the mass civil unrest of just three years ago and the accompanying economic collapse—rampant inflation, fuel shortages, mass poverty and foreign-debt default.
