Sri Lanka added just seven products with comparative export advantage between 2000 and 2015, versus 76 by China, 70 by Thailand, and 48 by Vietnam, leaving the export base too narrow to compete with regional peers, Dhananath Fernando, chief executive at Advocata, said at CA Sri Lanka’s fifth annual tax symposium in July 2026, citing a study by Harvard University.
“Our economic complexity is very low. We don’t produce complicated products,” Fernando said.
He presented the keynote, where he also showed Sri Lanka only having six trade agreements, compared with 15 for Vietnam and 16 for Thailand.
A new export product signals that a country has become competitive in a good it was not previously. Researchers measure this through revealed comparative advantage, or RCA, a metric that captures whether a country exports a disproportionately high share of a product relative to its overall share of world trade. The study classifies a product as new if a country lacked RCA between 1998 and 2000 but acquired it between 2013 and 2015.
Vietnam Beats Sri Lanka 5 to 1 on Export Share of GDP
Exports of goods and services, % of GDP
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators.Note: Sri Lanka's figures between 2010 and 2014 were not reported
“We just produce simple goods, and this is a problem,” Fernando said. Between 2000 and 2015, Sri Lanka exported only seven items with RCA, including rags, woven fabrics, tulle fabric, wheat, cigarettes, lead oxides, and textiles for conveyor belts.
The Central Bank reported in January 2026 that Sri Lanka’s export basket comprised 16 products in the industrial segment, including textiles, rubber, petroleum products, gems, and machinery, plus eight in agriculture, with mineral and other unclassified exports making up the remainder.
Thailand Beats Sri Lanka 10 to 1 on Export Diversification
No. of new export products
Source: Centre for International Development, Harvard University, Sri Lanka Growth Diagnostic Analysis, January 2018.
Exports reached just 19% of Sri Lanka’s GDP in 2025, compared with 71% for Thailand and 98% for Vietnam.
“Vietnam and Sri Lanka started their export journey at the same time,” Fernando said, but Sri Lanka exported $13.6 billion in 2025 while Vietnam exported $474 billion.