In Colombo, business leaders and policymakers gathered to explore a force that now shapes capital flows as decisively as interest rates or regulation. Strategic narrative has become economic infrastructure in its own right, influencing how countries are priced, trusted, and chosen in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
When Performance Alone Is Not Enough
In Colombo, in a room convened by the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, the conversation was not about survival. It was about signal. Business leaders, policymakers, editors, investors, and communications professionals gathered not to debate whether Sri Lanka could recover, but how it should now be understood. The forum title captured the ambition precisely: “Narrating Sri Lanka’s Story: How Strategic Communications Can Fuel Investment, Talent and Global Partnerships.” It reflected an uncomfortable but necessary truth of the modern economy. Performance alone is no longer enough. Performance must be legible. This distinction matters because perception moves faster than facts. Markets reprice belief long before balance sheets confirm recovery. Capital flows ahead of certainty. Talent relocates on instinct as much as income. Countries that ignore perception cede advantage to those that shape it deliberately. Strategic communications, therefore, is no longer a reputational afterthought. It is part of national economic infrastructure, as essential to competitiveness as ports, roads, and regulatory frameworks.
The Tension Between Fragility and Confidence
Sri Lanka has a stronger story to tell on investment and trade than its macroeconomic headlines suggest. The US–Sri Lanka commercial corridor alone is substantial enough to anchor that story in real numbers rather than aspiration. Yet the country sits at a complex inflection point: fragile fundamentals alongside increasingly confident soft power, a nation attempting to convert an island of stories into an island of deals. This is not contradiction. It is complexity. And complexity, when articulated with clarity, can become competitive advantage. To understand why narrative matters so profoundly now, it is useful to revisit what power looks like in the modern world. Political scientist Joseph Nye described soft power as the ability to shape the preferences of others through attraction rather than coercion or payment. Hard power compels. Soft power persuades. When the two are aligned, Nye called it smart power. In an era where military force and sanctions define the limits of traditional influence, soft power has emerged as the currency that unlocks markets, mobilises talent, and builds coalitions that endure beyond transaction.
Why Trust Has Become a Tradable Asset
In economic terms, soft power does something very specific. It reduces friction and increases trust. Trust lowers the cost of capital. Trust shortens decision cycles. Trust allows investors, partners, and talent to act with less defensive caution. In an age of derisking, compliance scrutiny, and reputational contagion, trust is no longer abstract. It is priced into every transaction, every contract negotiation, every investment committee decision. When a country builds trust consistently, it creates what might be called a confidence premium, the intangible value that makes capital cheaper, negotiations faster, and partnerships stickier.
This is where nation branding has evolved beyond recognition. In the past, country branding meant flags, slogans, logos, and glossy campaigns. It was aesthetic. Today, nation branding is operational. It encompasses investment credibility, talent traction, regulatory trust, crisis response behaviour, and the quality of global partnerships. It is not what a country says about itself. It is what others believe it will do under pressure. Branding has moved from the communications department to the boardroom, from the periphery of statecraft to the centre of economic strategy.
Beyond Outdated Frames
Sri Lanka’s challenge is not a lack of charm or culture. It is that the country is still too often viewed through outdated frames. Tourism, civil war memory, and crisis headlines crowd out a more complex economic reality that includes manufacturing capability, professional services, digital talent, and regional logistics relevance. These frames are not entirely wrong, but they are incomplete. They flatten a three-dimensional story into two dimensions, rendering invisible the very capabilities that could drive the next phase of growth. The task now is not reinvention, but recalibration. Not erasure of the past, but expansion of what the present makes visible. The AmCham forum made clear that narrative competition is intensifying. Countries are no longer competing solely on tax rates and incentives. They are competing on clarity, coherence, and whether their story stands up to due diligence. In a world where information travels instantly and reputational damage compounds exponentially, countries that communicate with precision and consistency build protective moats around their economic interests. Those that communicate poorly or inconsistently pay a premium for every misunderstood signal and every mixed message.
Three Pillars of Credible National Narratives
In my keynote, I argued that credible national narratives are built on three pillars: proof points, people, and partnerships. Proof points matter because credibility is evidence based. Investors do not respond to generic claims that a country is open for business. They ask what is stable, what is improving, and what is investable now. They want data that survives scrutiny, policy signals that are consistent across ministries, and reforms that feel embedded rather than episodic. This is not cynicism. It is fiduciary responsibility. Investment committees answer to stakeholders and cannot operate on hope alone. They require demonstrable progress and indicators that suggest improvement is structural rather than cyclical.
People matter because capital ultimately follows capability. Leadership credibility, operational talent, and execution track record all shape confidence. A country’s narrative is embodied by the individuals who represent it in boardrooms, negotiations, and crises. This is why ministerial stability matters. Why technocratic competence is noticed. Why the quality of negotiators, diplomats, and sector specialists sends signals about institutional depth. People are not merely representatives of a story. They are the story made flesh.
Partnerships matter because validation travels faster through trusted intermediaries than through official channels. Global brands, anchor investors, multilaterals, and respected institutions act as narrative accelerators. When they commit, they perform due diligence on behalf of others. Their presence reduces perceived risk for those who follow. The first mover in any market does not merely invest. They validate.
The Global Battle for Human Capital
These pillars are inseparable from the question of talent, now one of the most contested battlegrounds in the global economy. Capital flows follow talent. Talent follows confidence. Countries compete openly for founders, scientists, lawyers, engineers, and creatives through diaspora engagement, global talent visas, and founder pathways. This is not altruism. It is economic strategy. Countries that win the competition for human capital compound advantages across innovation, productivity, and global connectivity. Those that lose experience not only brain drain, but a hollowing out of the very capabilities required to compete in knowledge intensive sectors. Without a national vision for talent, countries experience decline rather than growth. With one, they turn mobility into advantage. The most sophisticated economies now treat talent as infrastructure, investing in attraction and retention with the same rigour applied to transport or digital networks.
Diaspora as Strategic Asset
Sri Lanka’s diaspora is a strategic asset hiding in plain sight. It is soft power in motion. Diaspora communities act as living bridges between local reality and global confidence. They translate risk, contextualise reform, and reduce perceived uncertainty faster than institutions alone can. When a diaspora member vouches for an opportunity, they bring decades of accumulated reputation to bear. Countries that engage their diaspora strategically do not treat them as sentimental ambassadors. They treat them as economic actors, investors, mentors, and validators. Sri Lanka has the opportunity to do the same through structured pathways that channel diaspora capital, expertise, and networks into productive deployment.
How Countries Reveal Themselves in Crisis
Another under discussed dimension of national narrative is crisis response. Crises cannot be prevented, but response can be controlled. For investors, crisis response reveals institutional quality under stress. Speed, transparency, leadership visibility, and coordination matter deeply. Crisis response is brand behaviour, the moment when stated values meet operational reality. Countries that respond well do not just recover faster. They earn reputational credit that compounds over time. Those that respond poorly find damage extending far beyond the immediate crisis. Sri Lanka’s recent past has shown both vulnerability and resilience. The lesson is to treat preparedness and communication readiness as part of economic strategy, not merely emergency management.
From Platitudes to Proof
The practical question raised repeatedly at the forum was how Sri Lanka should narrate itself for investment now. The answer is not repetition or platitude. It is demonstration. Clarity about policy stability. Honesty about constraints. Focus on sectors where Sri Lanka can genuinely compete. Alignment between strategy, expertise, and promotion so that confidence is reinforced rather than undermined.
Learning from the United Kingdom
A useful parallel comes from the United Kingdom’s industrial strategy, which embedded growth sectors into policy and promotion. The elevation of the legal sector as a strategic export, underpinned by English law’s global reach, was supported through deliberate narrative alignment. The English Law Promotion Panel, which I serve on, exists to translate technical excellence into commercial confidence through consistency and credibility. The lesson is transferable. Effective national positioning requires strategy, sector expertise, and promotional discipline working together.
The Integration Imperative
Sri Lanka has all three elements. What it needs now is integration. Not more committees, but operational alignment. What is said in London, New York, or Singapore must reflect what is deliverable in Colombo. Consistency builds trust. Mixed signals destroy it. The panel discussion that followed the keynote reinforced this point. Public private collaboration is essential. The private sector brings execution and market intelligence. The public sector brings policy coherence and convening power. Together, they create the conditions for durable growth.
Tourism as Signal, Not Just Sector
Tourism was discussed not as nostalgia, but as signal. High value segments such as wellness, experiential travel, and meetings and events reinforce a country’s broader brand by signalling safety, service quality, and institutional capacity. Yet tourism alone cannot carry the next phase of growth. Sri Lanka must articulate a clear value proposition in exports and services, supported by skills development and sector specific branding.
Coherence Over Spin
The forum concluded with a shared understanding that Sri Lanka’s next phase of growth depends not only on reform, but on how coherently its story is told. This is not a call for spin. It is a call for alignment. Sri Lanka does not need to be reinvented. It needs to be understood. Narrative, in the end, is how reality travels. In a global economy defined by speed and competition for trust, the countries that win are those that make belief easier and commitment safer. An island of stories learning, deliberately and with increasing sophistication, to become an island of deals.
About The Writer
Farzana Baduel, President-elect (2026) of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and CEO and Co-founder of Curzon PR (UK), is a leading specialist in global strategic communications. She advises entrepreneurs at Oxford’s Said Business School, co-founded the Asian Communications Network (UK), and serves on the boards of the Halo Trust, and Soho Theatre. Recognised on the PRWeek Power List and Provoke Media’s Innovator 25, she also co-hosts the podcast, Stories and Strategies. Farzana champions diversity, social mobility, and the power of storytelling to connect worlds.
