Millennium Partners under a contract with the Millennium Challenge Corporation undertook the development and implementation of surveys of households on land and transport, a greater Colombo transport or commuter survey, and a survey of firms on land and transport with three subcontractors — the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Colombo, a public policy think tank, Opinion Research Business International (ORB), an international survey research firm, and TNS Lanka (TNS), a Sri Lankan survey research firm. MP also received support from an independent transport economist, Janaka Weerawardana, a PhD candidate at the University of Moratuwa.
Based upon an MCC constraints to growth diagnostic study, it was determined that Sri Lanka’s economy is constrained by numerous factors — in particular, a congested and poorly regulated road and transport system and the lack of a coherent government land policy and land management system, compounded by a delay-ridden court system that contributes to widespread and unsettled land disputes. These constraints impede the flow of commerce and discourage badly needed investment that could lead to economic growth.
Surveys of household, firm, and Colombo commuter (household) perceptions of how the current land and transport system operates were developed to collect data to help MCC develop economic rates of return for land and transport compact projects. Millennium Partners was tasked by the Economic Analysis division of the Department for Policy and Evaluation at MCC, to help design and implement three surveys of firms and households in Sri Lanka.
