Air Seychelles, the State-owned national flag carrier for Seychelles, has announced plans to launch a new international service from Mahe to Colombo, Sri Lanka, starting on June 20. The carrier will operate the service twice a week with its Airbus A320neo airliners, configured to carry 12 business class and 156 economy class passengers. The return flights from Colombo will be operated on Wednesday and Sunday mornings.

Air Seychelles will also partner with Sri Lankan Airlines, giving its passengers access to more than 20 destinations across Asia and Australasia, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. The partnership will enable travellers to purchase a single ticket for travel beyond Colombo to other destinations in the region.

Air Seychelles already operates international services to Johannesburg, Mauritius, Mumbai, and Tel Aviv, and scheduled domestic services with up to 30 roundtrips each day between Mahe and Praslin, as well as charter flights to other islands in the archipelago. The carrier’s acting CEO, Sandy Benoiton, highlighted that the new destination to Colombo will reinforce the regional service and provide enhanced connectivity to Southeast Asia and beyond.

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Indonesia Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage accompanied by the Embassy’s Second Secretary (Commercial) and the Public Diplomacy Officer of the Embassy visited the West Java Craft Council

The Ambassador highlighted the contribution made by the craft industry to the growth of the economy and requested training for Sri Lankan craftsmen in the field of batik and rattan. The officials of the West Java Craft Council invited Sri Lankan craft industry representatives to participate in their upcoming exhibition in June. They also suggested entering into an MoU to provide training for the Sri Lankan craft industry including proposals for collaboration between the craft industries of the two countries.

The West Java Craft Gallery displays craft items produced in 27 districts of the West Java province. A team of officials from West Java Craft Council participated in the meeting including Head of the Department of Trade and Industry Department of West Java Noneng Komara Nengsih, West Java Dekranasda Deputy Secretary II Dr.Dian Agustin and Trade Shows, Exhibitions, Seminar, and Training Organizer Darningsih Rustiadji .

Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and North-western provinces and in Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts during the afternoon or night.

Mainly fair weather will prevail elsewhere over the island.

General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

On the apparent northward relative motion of the sun, it is going to be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka during 05th to 15th of April in this year. The nearest areas of Sri Lanka over which the sun is overhead tomorrow (15th) are Nallur, Paranthan and Chundikkulam at about 12:10 noon.

On Thursday, Japan, India and France announced a new platform to coordinate talks among bilateral creditors for the purpose of restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt. The move is intended to serve as a model for solving the debt problems of middle-income economies, according to a report by Reuters. The initiative, launched by Japan as this year’s G7 chair, aims to begin a series of meetings among Sri Lanka’s creditors, with the first round scheduled to take place “as soon as possible”, said French Director General of the Treasury Emmanuel Moulin during a briefing.

However, it remains unclear whether China, Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, will join the initiative. According to official government data, Sri Lanka owes $7.1 billion to bilateral creditors, with China being owed $3 billion, followed by $2.4 billion to the Paris Club and $1.6 billion to India. In addition, the government also needs to renegotiate more than $12 billion of debt in eurobonds with overseas private creditors and $2.7 billion on other commercial loans.

The new platform’s launch has put pressure on major economies to come up with an alternative scheme to address the debt restructuring issue in Sri Lanka. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said the establishment of the negotiation process is a “historical outcome” as the committee is open to all creditors. It remains to be seen how this initiative will affect Sri Lanka’s debt burden and economic outlook in the long run.

In a regular press conference held on April 13, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Wenbin, assured that China would continue to support Chinese financial institutions in actively working out the debt treatment for Sri Lanka.

Wenbin responded to a question regarding a new platform to coordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, which is expected to be announced by Japan, France, and India. He said, “We will work with relevant countries and international financial institutions to jointly play a positive role in helping Sri Lanka navigate the situation, ease its debt burden, and achieve sustainable development. At the same time, we call on commercial and multilateral creditors to take part in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring based on fair burden-sharing.”

On April 12, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki announced that Japan, France, and India would launch a new platform for creditors to coordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt. He also expressed the hope that China would join the effort.

1. Sri Lankans usher in the Sinhala & Tamil New Year today: punya kalaya starts at 8.35 am: dawn of the New Year at 2.59 pm: lighting of hearth at 3.29 pm: starting work & partaking of meals at 5.05 pm.
2. President Ranil Wickremesinghe launches the debt restructuring process by Japan, India & France: Sri Lanka announced its debt default on 12th April 2022, and the process is only starting 1 year after that hurried & controversial announcement: at the time that announcement was made, many top officials assured that the debt re-structuring would be completed swiftly.
3. IMF Director Asia Pacific Krishna Srinivasan explains how the restructuring would happen in terms of providing principal “haircuts”, extension of maturity & interest rate reduction, which has to be negotiated between Sri Lanka and its creditors: indicates that Sri Lanka’s “debt relief” is expected to contribute a staggering USD 17 bn “to close the financial gap” between 2023-27 while the overall gap is about USD 24 bn.
4. IMF Deputy MD Kenji Okamura says an expeditious debt resolution is needed for Sri Lanka to emerge quickly from its crisis and hopes all bi-lateral creditors will participate and complete negotiations before the IMF’s 1st review: Japanese FM Shunichi Suzuki and Indian FM Nirmala Sitharaman also join the “launch”: Sri Lanka’s largest and most important bi-lateral creditor China absent.
5. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse asks IGP C D Wickramaratne to probe an allegation that a party involved in the ongoing deliberations of the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster received a bribe of USD 250 mn and the money was sent to an account at a British bank: declines to vouch for the veracity of the accusation.
6. Frontline Socialist Party Propaganda Secretary Duminda Nagamuwa says the Central Bank is most vulnerable and losing its security and safety under the Govt of President Ranil Wickremasinghe.
7. State Trading Corporation says the 3rd shipment of 1 mn eggs from India has been released and will be distributed to bakeries.
8. Additional Prisons Commissioner General Chandana Ekanayake says the Prisons Dept has prepared a special opportunity for prisoners to meet visitors during 3 days in view of the Sinhala & Tamil New Year: visitors to also be given opportunity to provide food parcels and sweets.
9. Cricket selectors drop wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella from the 15-member squad for the 2-match Test series against Ireland, which begins in Galle on April 16: name Nishan Madushka and Sadeera Samarawickrama as their wicketkeeping options.
10. Asia Rugby reinstates Sri Lanka Rugby as a full member of Asia Rugby, considering the Sports Ministry’s confirmation of canceling the gazette notification dated April 1st, 2022.