Lal R. Jayawardena (Sinhala:ලාල් ජයවර්ධන) (1935–2004) was a noted Sri Lankan economist and diplomat.
He was the first director of the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) (1985–1993) and Sri Lankan Treasury Secretary in the 1970s.
[1] As the Treasury Secretary, he was also instrumental in the reform package that opened up the Sri Lanka economy in the mid-1970s.
[3] Born to N. U. Jayawardena the former Governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon and Amybelle Millicent Jayawardena; he was educated at the Royal College, Colombo, where he was a contemporary of Gamini Seneviratne and Chris Pinto.
[5] During his time at Cambridge, his contemporaries were Amartya Sen, Richard Layard, Tam Dalyell, Mahbub ul Haque, Jagdish Bhagwati, Manmohan Singh and Geoff Harcourt; he was also a member of the Cambridge Apostles[6] He was married to Dr. Kumari Jayawardene.