Page 15 - 2022 Abstract Book RUICHSS_2022_11_17 after conference

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

Keynote Address

Integrated Governance for Sustainable Development in the
Post Pandemic Milieu

Professor Gamini Premaratne
Senior Assistant Professor, UBD School of Business and Economics

It gives me great pleasure to be with all of you this morning at the 8th Ruhuna
University International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences – 2022. The
theme of today's conference is "Integrated Governance for Sustainable Development
in the Post-Pandemic Milieu." I firmly believe that we all share the same view that
the COVID-19 crisis is global, and never have we experienced such a health crisis in
history. We are now living in the "new normal" era. However, we refer to it as post-
COVID-19, in which everyone must be ready for changes, including leaders,
organizations, government agencies, and citizens.

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic started in China sometime in late
November 2019 and has spread to other parts of the world since early 2020, which
resulted in roughly 633 million cases and 6.6 million deaths as of last week. As the
number of cases increased rapidly, the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic on
March 11, 2020. On September 14, 2022, a few months ago, the WHO announced,
"We are not there yet, but the end is in sight". This is the beginning of the new normal,
but there have been 18 million cases reported globally during the last two months. It
is not entirely over yet, but many governments have decided to continue relaxing the
rules and restrictions imposed during the pandemic. It is well accepted that the
COVID-19 pandemic is not only a health crisis faced by people in every corner of the
world, but that it has also had a detrimental effect on people's lives and economies
globally.

The effect of COVID-19 on the world economy threatens various sectors, but
the impact will vary from sector to sector and country to country. Today, governments
are fighting against rising inflation caused by high oil prices due to growing demand
during the post-pandemic. As a result, we are experiencing unaffordable commodities
prices that create havoc in our daily life, increasing poverty and inequality
domestically, especially in developing countries.

xiv