The container transport charges have dropped by 2.5 per cent effective from midnight yesterday (04), as per a decision by the United Lanka Container Transport Vehicle Owners Association.
The decision comes in following the government’s move of slashing the price of diesel.
MIAP
The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Ms. Kanni Wignaraja who is currently in Sri Lanka, appreciated the efforts taken by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Government in resolving the economic crisis in the country. Ms. Wignaraja reiterated the U.N’s financial and technical support for Sri Lanka during this recovery period.
This was revealed at the meeting held between the President and the Delegation headed by Assistant Secretary-General of the UN at the Presidential Secretariat today (4).
The discussions focused on the economic reforms, with the delegation recognizing that these difficult decisions would have to be taken in order to ensure long-term recovery and growth in the country.
The President also briefed the visiting delegation on the political reforms in the country, including the establishment of the Constitutional Council in Parliament and the ongoing discussions with the other political parties, regarding a resolution to the ethnic issues in Sri Lanka. The delegation welcomed the steps taken by the government.
President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser on National Security Mr. Sagala Ratnayake, and Director of International Affairs, Mr. Dinouk Colombage were also present at the meeting.
Colombo Port City, a shiny metropolis rising out of the water along the Sri Lankan capital’s seafront at Galle face with the huge expanse of sand reclaimed from the sea is being transformed into a high-tech city as an alternate to Singapore, Dubai, Monaco or Hong Kong
It will host an offshore international financial centre, residential areas and a marina – prompting comparisons with Dubai, Monaco or Hong Kong.
“This reclaimed land gives Sri Lanka a chance to redraw the map and to build a city of world class proportions and functionality as an alternate location to Singapore and Dubai with its cost competitiveness and attractive quality of living”, Thulci Aluwihare, Deputy Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo (pvt) Ltd said.
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, visited Port City Colombo development project during a private trip to the island.
Cameron engaged in a discussion with Reyaz Mihular – Commission Member and Vindhya Weerasekera – Director Legal and Corporate Affairs of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission; Yang Lu – Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd. to understand aspects of the Public Private Partnership and catalytic role of the Project in transforming the economy. Renuka Weerakoon – Director General, BOI was also present at the meeting.
Briefing the former PM, Aluwihare explained that the ambition is to create a destination appeal for businesses to leverage Port City Colombo as a platform to access the region. Further, coupled with an attractive regulatory regime, Port City Colombo will be positioned as an alternate location to Singapore and Dubai with its cost competitiveness and attractive quality of living.
In response to Cameron’s inquiry on the USPs of the Project against similar destinations in South Asia, Mr. Aluwihare explained that Port City Colombo offers beyond a geographical advantage, with a comprehensive package of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to enhance ease of doing business.
The Commission is a Single Window Investment Facilitator with the ability to implement dynamic regulations, liberal foreign exchange regime, an open labour market and attractive investment incentives.
In addition, as Sri Lanka’s first master planned city, Port City Colombo will create an attractive living environment focused on green and smart living.
Cameron’s visit to the Project Site was in view of fostering greater cooperation on promoting Port City Colombo to potential investors. He was also the first high-level delegate to visit the Port City Colombo development project in 2023.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne has appointed Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) of Police Nilantha Jayawardena as the Senior DIG Administration.
His appointment comes in following the retirement of predecessor SDIG Nandana Munasinghe.
Jayawardena previously served as the SDIG of Auxiliary Services and as the SDIG of Northern, Eastern and Central Provinces. He also served as the Director of the State Intelligence Service and was an international intelligence analyst.
An alumnus of Nalanda College, Colombo, Jayawardena holds an Honours Degree in Accounting and Finance from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. He collected his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colombo and additionally holds diplomas in conflict resolution and international relations.
MIAP
Government of India (GoI) have selected Thiru Sivakumar Nadesan, Managing Director of Express Newspapers, for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA), 2023. PBSA is the highest honour conferred by GoI on members of the Indian diaspora. The prestigious award will be conferred by Hon’ble President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu at the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention in Indore from 8-10 January 2023.
2. A Jury-cum-Awards Committee, with Vice-President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar as the Chairman and External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar as the Vice-Chair, selected Thiru Sivakumar Nadesan for the coveted honour. PBSA recognizes excellence achieved by members of the Indian diaspora across the globe in various fields.
3. Thiru Nadesan was selected for his contribution to the welfare of the community. He is the current President of the Sri Lanka chapter of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin and has been working relentlessly for community welfare. He initiated a fundraiser to assist stranded Indian Citizens in Sri Lanka during the Covid outbreak.
4. He actively promotes business and cultural exchanges between India and Sri Lanka and has been instrumental in inviting many Indian artists to perform in Sri Lanka. Further, he has supported several initiatives pertaining to classical and traditional fields such as Carnatic music in Sri Lanka. He has spoken at various PBD Conferences and was invited to meet Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at the Kumbh Mela in 2019.
5. Thiru Nadesan is the second Sri Lankan national to secure the honour. It may be recalled that Thiru Mano Selvanathan was conferred PBSA in 2011 for his valuable contributions in the business sphere.
***
Colombo
4 January 2023
Following the Ceremony of presentation of the Letters of Credence to the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Ambassador of Sri Lanka, S. Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake participated in the Wreath Laying Ceremony at Anitkabir Mausoleum in Ankara recently.
Family members of the Ambassador, staff of the Embassy and Sri Lankan nationals reside in Türkiye also joined the Ambassador at the Ceremony.
The Ambassador was welcomed by the Chief of Protocol of the Anitkabir and the Ceremony consisted of wreath-laying at the Mausoleum, observance of one minute’s silence, signing of the “Book of Honour” by the Ambassador and visiting the Atatürk Museum &the Independence War Museum.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is father of the Republic of Türkiye, who modernized the nation with secular, pluralist democratic features, which is a part of the “Kemalist” ideology, which led to the empowerment of women as imperative for progress.
Ataturk’s reforms included a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social and economic policy changes, designed to convert the new Republic of Türkiye into secular, modern nation-state, implemented under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in accordance with the Kemal ideology.Ataturk’s aspirations arecontinued by the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan bringing industrialization and rapid development.
In signing of the “Book of Honour”, the Ambassador wrote “The founding father of the Turkish Republic, Veteran Mr. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s legacy is indeed phenomenal globally.He led Türkiye’s modernization process, while advocating pluralism, democracy and secularism.
Above all, as a female citizen of the planet earth, I see him as a visionary in understanding the role of women in society, which is a prerequisite for development of any human society.”
Further she wrote that “Veteran Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is a shining example for developing states like my country, how determination and resilience can achieve rapid development, while retaining cultural characteristics in a contemporary manner”.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Ankara
02 January 2023
Sri Lanka’s precious mineral exploration has become highly irregular activity from the issuance of licences for mining and till the end of exploration owing to corrupt and wasteful administrative practices of Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB).
It has been observed that Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) was mishandling ongoing exploration of some private companies.
The Bureau receives 7% as royalty in mineral exploration. This royalty should be paid to the Department of Treasury.
But a senior treasury official confirmed that the seven percent royalty is not transferred to the Treasury. He also said that the amount received as the royalty is used to pay salaries and bonuses and, in some cases, to throw parties.
In that manner, a large amount of money due to the Government is misused. These parties are held in the guise of official duties or in the pretext of conducting religious programmes, he claimed. .
According to an audit report the GSMB must properly transfer the royalty to the Government. For the Yan Oya project, the relevant construction company still needs to pay the royalty for 1,343,810 cubic metres of earth and 3397 cubic meters of sand.
According to the 2019 Audit Report, royalties amounting to 26,876,200 rupees and 5433490 rupees, and 27,419,690 rupees for soil and sand have yet to be recovered.
The report also says that the royalty charged for graphite in 2016, 2017, and 2018 was 65 percent less than the approved royalty mentioned in the mining licenses, i.e.Rs. 1,427,174,239.00.
According to the audit report, the GSMB has stated that legal measures have been taken regarding the deduced royalty charged for granite.
“So far no proper graphite mining has been carried out. Mines in Kahatagaha and Bogala have not yet been properly operated.
To mine graphite, one has to dig down about 2000 feet underground. No excavation has been done to that extent yet.
The Government should definitely receive the 7 percent royalty for the mineral resources that we export. But as per section 17 of the Geology Act, the bureau has to generate its own income since its establishment as a bureau.
The income is generated from the money received after collecting the related fees and licence fees. But the bureau doesn’t just do bureau work. It maintains tsunami warning stations and conducts other inspections free of charge.
That costs a lot of money and the royalty is used for that. We only give a certain amount to the Ministry of Finance as royalty,an official of the bureau said.
The Government is to set up a holding company with 100 percent equity ownership vested with the Treasury Secretary and to make necessary arrangements to bring identified SOEs under this entity for restructuring.
The proposal is based on expert advice of the newly established SOE Restructuring Unit to expedite the restructuring process of SOEs.
The proposal to establish a separate agency was also made by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce last month suggesting a right model to adopt for the SOE restructuring agency (announced in the Interim National Budget for 2022) in order to provide the agency with the authority and power to carry out the required SOE Reforms.
It has also put forward a framework for practical implementation of SOE reforms after careful analysis of the role played by each SOE.
Accordingly, Cabinet Spokesperson and Minister of Transport and Highways and Minister of Mass Media Bandula Gunawardana said all identified SOEs including fully state-owned, partially owned and other forms of SOEs would be made subsidiaries of the proposed holding company.
Some of the entities targeted for restructuring are state-owned companies of which the government is the majority shareholder. Some state-owned enterprises operate as corporations,” the Government Information Department noted.
Gunawardana stressed that the SOE restructuring programme is critical to meet the country’s import bill and otherwise he warned that the country risks an economic collapse as similar to countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan.
“A large number of SOEs are incurring losses and the burden is on the public. We cannot continue this moving forward. We need to expedite the SOE restructuring process in order to assure a continuous flow of imports,” he added.
In 2021, the Treasury exhausted Rs.367 billion to maintain the operations of 430 SOEs.
SOE reforms also remain a critical part of the IMF staff-level agreement for the US$ 2.9 billion bailout package. It has recommended the government to restructure the Ceylon Electricity Board, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and SriLankan Airlines immediately.
In addition, the government recently announced its intention to restructure Sri Lanka Telecom PLC.
President Wickremesinghe presented proposals to restructure SOEs in the interim budget of 2022 as well as in the budget presented for the year 2023.
According to State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, the government is considering various models to restructure the identified SOEs from implementing structural changes to divesting 49 percent stake in such SOEs
Even amidst economic crisis, cash strapped Sri Lanka is striving to develop Colombo as a destination for aviation by completing the construction work of the Terminal 2 of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this year.
With the objective of enhancing the passenger experience at the Arrival Duty-Free area at Airport (BIA), all duty-free electronic shops were relocated to the 2nd floor of the arrival terminal building.
The opening ceremony of the new premises was held yesterday on Tuesday 03 with the participation of Nimal Siripala De Silva, Minister of Ports, Shipping & Aviation.
The scope of work consisted of the construction of a new electronic mall on the second floor of the new passenger terminal building, the shifting of 31 arrival duty-free shops from the first floor to the second floor, the installation of two escalators and two glass elevators, the construction of a structural steel staircase, the extension of three existing elevators, and the construction of four washroom blocks, etc.
This expansion of passenger facilitation and the shifting of the duty-free shops from the first floor to the second floor result in improving the image of the airport and Sri Lanka in every aspect. AASL spent approximately Rs. 225 million on the relocation, which added a total floor area of 1900 square meters. This relocation will facilitate the passengers’ use of their duty-free allowance for consumer electronics.
The overall expectation from the airport and aviation services by establishing the “BIA New Arrival Electronic Mall” is to enhance the arrival duty-free shopping experience of passengers and enhance the service quality of the airport. It has been a dire need for BIA to make such a difference in the arrival of duty-free goods and provide an enhanced customer experience.
Air transportation today determines a country’s economic power and the successful completion of these infrastructure projects automatically elevates our country’s economic prosperity, by adding to its foreign exchange earnings, GDP, creating new jobs, creating new industries, and expanding aviation, and travel-related industries.
Airports play a significant role in branding nations and they act as catalysts for socio-economic prosperity. The commencement of BIA Terminal 2 will be a giant step towards becoming an aviation hub in the region. Sri Lanka will fly to new heights of the globe.
The construction works of the new terminal 2 commenced on 15th December 2020 and it is expected to complete the project on 14th December 2023.
Project Management Unit (PMU), AASL together with the JV Japan Airport Consultants (JAC)/Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. – (JAC/NK), the consultants of the project and TAISEI Corporation, Japan, the contractor are working towards the achievement of the objectives of the project.
