President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed Dinesh Weerakkody as Chairman of the Board of Investment.
Other board members are Dr. Dushny Weerakoon, Chandani Wijewardena & Eraj de Silva
A former Chairman of Commercial Bank and Hatton National Bank, Dinesh Weerakkody is a board member of several other leading private institutions and has extensive experience in the financial and business fields. Previously, he also worked as the presidential adviser on treasury affairs.
The Chamber of Tourism and Industry has emphasized the need to develop domestic air travel services to effectively compete with its regional peers.
It pointed out that putting off the expansion and upgrading of domestic and international aviation services in the country will make it difficult for the tourism sector to reach its full potential.
Airlines, airport operators, airport on-site enterprises (restaurants and retail), and air navigation service providers employ 19,000 people in Sri Lanka. In addition,by buying goods and services from local suppliers the sector supported another 9,000 jobs.
On top of this, the sector is estimated to support a further 6,000 jobs through the wages it pays its employees, some or all of which are subsequently spent on consumer goods and services.
Foreign tourists arriving by air to Sri Lanka, who spend their money in the local economy,are estimated to support an additional 669,000 jobs. In total 703,000 jobs are supported by air transport and tourists arriving by air.
The local tourism sector experienced a near-collapse in the recent past following the interruptions of services by institutions providing domestic air travel using planes and helicopters.
As destination Sri Lanka is actively working towards reawakening the hard-hit sector, there is an urgent need to promote and further upgrade the aviation sector by luring more airlines to set up their serving offices in the country, said the Chamber in a statement to the media.
Given that active efforts have not been taken as yet to provide infrastructure facilities at domestic airports in the country, Tourism and Industry Chamber President A.M.Jaufer stressed that as a result the entire tourism sector has got affected.
To address the prevailing issues, the chamber called on the relevant authorities to start upgrading the domestic airports at Sigiriya, Koggala, China Bay and Batticaloa.
He noted that efforts must be taken to maximize the service opportunities and facilities at domestic airports to attract more passengers.
The chamber also stressed the need to establish flying training schools at Weerawila, Batticaloa and Jaffna airport complexes which will allow the educated youth to improve their skills.
To encourage the public to use domestic flying services, which will make the delivery financially viable, the chamber urged the authorities to introduce a fixed-price range for airline tickets, replacing the exorbitant charging system prevailing at present.
Further, efforts must be taken to introduce reforms to amend regulations in a speedy manner to fast-track revenue, the chamber said.
The air transport industry,including airlines and its supply chain, are estimated to support US $446 million of GDP in SriLanka. Spending by foreign tourists supports a further.
US $7.4 billion of the country’s GDP, totaling US $7.9 billion. In total, 8.9 percent of the country’s GDP is supported by inputs to the air transport sector and foreign tourists arriving by air.
Sri Lankan bank has opened a vostro account in India with State Bank of India to conduct bilateral trade in Indian rupee, Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said.
The High Commissioner discussed this and related matters with South Asia Regional Head of State Bank of India (SBI) Mr. Vikas Goel today, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka tweeted.
Bank of Ceylon (BoC) Chennai Branch has opened a Vostro account with the State Bank of India to carry out bilateral trade in Indian Rupees, official sources revealed.
Several other commercial banks are currently negotiating with leading corresponding banks in India for similar arrangements.
Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay announced the new development without naming the Sri Lankan bank.
“Happy to note that a Sri Lankan bank has opened a vostro account in India with State Bank of India to conduct bilateral trade in INR.
The High Commissioner discussed this and related matters with South Asia Regional Head of SBI. Vikas Goel,” tweeted Baglay yesterday.
The Indian government has opened five special vostro accounts for trade in rupee with Sri Lankan banks with a view of facilitating trade with the island nation, official sources said
SBI Mauritius Ltd and People’s Bank of Sri Lanka opened an SVRA with State Bank of India (SBI). In addition, Bank of Ceylon opened an account in its Indian subsidiary in Chennai recently.
Union Bank of India has opened spec opened special rupee account of Ros Bank Russia while Chennai-based Indian Bank has opened such accounts of three Sri Lankan banks, including Colombo-based NDB Bank and Seylan Bank
These special vostro rupee accounts (SVRA) with banks of Sri Lanka rationalizing the rupee trade arrangement.
Under the rules, any surplus in these rupee accounts can be invested in treasury bills and government securities. Banks want to understand how these securities will be transferred to the buyers.
Under the arrangement announced by the RBI on July 11, an authorized bank in India can open special rupee vostro accounts of correspondent banks of any partner trading country.
India is the biggest source for Sri Lanka’s imports. Sri Lanka’s exports to India increased by 13.24% YoY to $ 642.03 million in the first nine months of 2022.
Growth in Exports to India was mainly supported by increased exports of animal feed (14.69%), areca nuts (69.85%), woven fabrics (77.45%), and wood pulp (33.85%) %) from January – September 2022.
A vostro account is an account a correspondent bank holds on behalf of another bank. These accounts are an essential aspect of correspondent banking in which the bank holding the funds acts as custodian for or manages the account of a foreign counterpart.
Sri Lanka has agreed to use Indian rupee (INR) for international trade. It comes days after the Government of India said it is looking at ways to bring countries that are particularly short of dollars into the ambit of Indian rupee trade settlement mechanism.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rapidly scaling up its emergency operations in Sri Lanka.
This was disclosed by Dustin Shiau, Senior Regional Program Officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA),who was on a visit to Sri Lanka recently.
He met with food-insecure communities and heard first-hand accounts of the difficulties they are facing and how USAID and WFP support has helped provide regular meals for their families.
During his visit, Shiau met with communities from Mullaitivu in the North of Sri Lanka, who are among those worst affected by the economic crisis – including pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and people with disabilities – to better understand their nutritional needs.
During his visit, Shiau participated in a live demonstration of a mapping exercise in Moratuwa – an area susceptible to weather-related natural disasters – to understand the process by which authorities use Geographic Information System (GIS) software to identify where the most vulnerable communities may be hardest-hit during an emergency.
This year, the US has provided a record total US$20 million (approximately LKR 7.3 billion) to support WFP’s response to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
Of that, USAID’s most recent contribution of US$13 million (approximately LKR 4.7 billion) is providing cash assistance and food rations to families hard-hit by the economic crisis across the country. USAID also donated funds to WFP to help feed children enrolled in the national school meal programme.
“The United States of America is a significant contributor to WFP’s emergency operation in Sri Lanka and the single largest donor to WFP globally,” said Abdur Rahim Siddiqui, WFP Sri Lanka’s Representative and Country Director. “
USAID’s long-time support to WFP and the Government of Sri Lanka includes disaster risk reduction initiatives related to floods and landslides.
With support from donors like the US, WFP is rapidly scaling up its emergency operation – which commenced in June – with plans to provide food and nutrition assistance to 3.4 million people.
WFP has so far reached over one million people with cash, food and vouchers and through the national school meal programme.
In Sri Lanka, 50% of young people are unaware about basic sexual health issues and one in five women have experienced intimate partner violence.
To address this issue, UNFPA and the Government of Japan joined hands in 2019 to deliver ‘PROMISES’, a project to improve access to information and services on sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence, especially for women and young people.
The three-year project supported the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs to improve access to youth friendly services and strengthen the capacity of shelters for survivors of violence.
Working together with implementing partners amidst several national crises, the project informed religious and community leaders on health and family planning, engaged civil society and youth-led organisations.
It has also trained instructors through online and in-person trainings that focused on strengthening capacities and knowledge to ensure every woman and young person has equitable access to life-saving information and services.
“Parents were reluctant to send their children to the Yowun Piyasa centre as it is associated with social stigma, especially when girls speak to a public health midwife.
Parents have a fear that society will look down upon their daughters thinking that they have become pregnant. Several educational and awareness programmes were conducted to parents to address these issues carefully and encourage young people to access services and information on their health and well being”, said a service provider from Kopai.
Through the PROMISES project, three-months’ worth of life-saving medication and medical supplies critical for upholding the health of women and girls were provided to the Ministry of Health.
The project also supported the infrastructure development of six shelters and worked with educators, police officers, state sector employees and service providers working with women, girls, and families.
Speaking on the partnership, the Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka Mizukoshi Hideaki stated: “The Government of Japan has supported this project in partnership with UNFPA aiming to empower the most vulnerable women, girls and families with access to health and medical services and information, to protect themselves and their families.
Speaking on the programme, UNFPA Representative in Sri Lanka Kunle Adeniyi said: “The PROMISES project focused on supporting the Government of Sri Lanka, civil society organisations and communities on strengthening access to family planning, sexual and reproductive health.
It was also improving young people’s access to health services, providing support to shelters and supporting women’s economic empowerment opportunities, all which are crucial to supporting families and individuals, especially amid crises.
Empowering women is important to ensure they are inclusive in the peace building and development processes of this country.”
DP Coding School, is a new program launched under DP Education. This program is being implemented with the aim of opening the way to Sri Lankan school students and young people for the thousands of job opportunities that will be created in the future world through the field of information technology.
Apart from those related to the computer field, a question that comes to many other people is what is this coding school. So we thought to explain it very simply.
Many languages are used to communicate between people. Animals also have ways to communicate with each other. Usually when we use computers and smart phones, we use various languages like English, Sinhala, Tamil to get information. But a different language is used inside computers or smart phones. That’s computer language. Coding is the method of making something we want through a computer using this computer language.
Things like computer software, smart phone apps, and computer games are created through coding. You may have some idea how many coding-related job opportunities have been created in the world…
If you look back 20 years, computers were not everywhere at that time. But today almost every government or private office has at least one or two computers. Not only that, smart phones which were not available then are used by a large percentage of the population on a daily basis. So if we think about the future 10 or 20 years from now, it’s hard to imagine how much computer technology will be intertwined with human lives.
On the other hand, even now, computer programs and software are used in all fields including agriculture, education, medicine, sports, and not just the industrial sector. Accordingly, millions of these coding-related jobs are bound to emerge in the world in the future.
Also, you can get a high salary for coding related jobs in Sri Lanka. There are still job opportunities related to coding that can earn income directly in US dollars. In the video below, you can learn some information about the high salaries of coding-related jobs in the world.
One of the biggest problems we see in Sri Lanka is that many of the children who complete their schooling after going to school for 13 years do not have a goal or an understanding of what field they should focus on for a job. But if your child, or sibling gets the opportunity to enter the field of coding at school age and gain basic knowledge and experience, they will definitely have a clear vision of what to do next when they get out of school.
DP Coding School operates to provide that opportunity to our future generations.
DP Coding School can be joined by students of any age from first grade. No special knowledge of English is required, because the teaching is done in Sinhala. And this valuable education is provided to you completely free. If you have a computer you can join DP Coding School from home.
Activities have been arranged here in a very simple and attractive manner so that anyone from small children can grasp it very easily. Apart from that, DP Coding School also offers certificates according to the number of stages completed.
Do not miss this valuable opportunity and enter the DP Coding School today by referring to https://dpcode.lk/dashboard . Encourage your children, brothers and sisters to take the initial steps to apply for lakhs of job opportunities in various fields from IT to software engineers.
It is reported that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has given a one-year service extension to Army Commander Lt. Gen. Vikum Liyanage.
Accordingly, it is stated that the service period of the Army Commander has been extended from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2023.
Mr. Vikum Liyanage assumed the position of Army Commander from June 1st.
The budget submitted by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna for the year 2023 of the Kurunegala Municipal Council, which is in power, has been defeated by a majority of 07 votes.
Only 07 votes were received in favor of the budget presented by Mayor Thushara Sanjeeva and 14 votes were received against it.
Kurunegala is considered a stronghold of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the mayor of Kurunegala, Thushara Sanjeeva, is a close disciple of Johnston Fernando, one of the strongest in Pohottuwa. Similarly, the leader of Pohottuwa, Mahinda Rajapaksa also contested the last two general elections from Kurunegala district.
The deadline for submission of applications for A/L students’ scholarships programme through the President’s Fund ends on December 23
The accepting of applications for the scholarship award programme by the President’s Fund for students with economic difficulties who have successfully completed the G.C.E O/L examination in 2021 and will be sitting for the G.C.E. A/L examinations in 2024 will end on December 23.
The duly completed applications which were obtained from the school principals should be submitted to the respective school Principals on or before 23rd December 2022. The Grama Seva Officer should recommend the income status of the applicants’ family. The application forms will be handed over to the President’s office through the zonal education offices.
However, due to the lack of understanding of the application submission process, a large number of applications were directly sent to the President’s Fund. Therefore, all the scholarship candidates are informed to hand over the application forms to the respective principals instead of sending the application forms directly to the President’s Fund in order to facilitate the scholarship awarding process without delay.
To be eligible for the scholarship, the monthly income of the applicant’s family should not exceed Rs. 75,000/- and the applicant should be a student of a government school or in a private school that does not charge fees.
The applicant should be a student who has completed the G.C.E. O/L examination for the first time in 2021 and should be fully qualified to follow the G.E.C. A/L examination in the year 2024.
The number of scholarships per educational zone is 30, and the selected scholarship winners will receive a bursary of Rs. 5,000.00 each for a maximum period of 24 months.
President’s Media Division
