1. India’s Adani Group, John Keells Holdings & Sri Lanka Ports Authority commence construction to jointly develop the West Container Terminal in Colombo with an investment of over USD 700 mn: project to be a Build-Operate-Transfer project.
   
2. President’s Media states President Ranil Wickremesinghe held discussions on debt management with IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva, Finance Minister of Ghana Ken Ofori-Atta and Speaker of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed, on the sidelines of COP27.
   
3. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha says 4,000 principals will be recruited to the government service after the Supreme Court lifts the order suspending the recruitment of principals: also says school system requires 16,000 principals even though there are only 12,000 now.
   
4. SJB MP Dr Harsha Silva says he has report containing facts related to the staff-level agreement between Government and IMF: also says he got it through an “external” party: refuses to disclose contents: it’s now almost 8 months since Sri Lanka sought IMF assistance: no funds received yet from IMF or other bilateral source from that time onwards.
   
5. Acting Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says Rs.16 bn had been forgone in revenue by government after the special commodity levy imposed on sugar was slashed in 2020: analysts speculate that the levy may be re-imposed shortly to recover the lost revenue.
   
6. Political sources believe nearly 13 MPs of several political parties may join the President’s UNP to support the government in the upcoming budget: these MPs of SLPP and SJB expected to join on the date of the Budget Speech.
   
7. Defence Ministry approves legal discharge of Tri-Forces’ absentees who are currently overseas, provided they report to their relevant units during the “general amnesty” from 15th November to 31st December.
   
8. Central Bank issues Rs.80.9 bn (95.8% of the total issue) 3-month Bills at a staggering 33.14% per annum interest rate: massive “bunching of debt” feared: additional interest incurred by government exceeds Rs.600 bn so far this year.
   
9. Sydney Magistrate lifts suppression order on the media in the case involving Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilake and Australian “dating app” woman: case to be taken again on 12th January 2023: bail application to be forwarded prior to that.
   
10. Top Sri Lankan cricketer Wanindu Hasaranga moves up to the No: 1 position in the latest ICC T20 Rankings for Bowlers: Maheesh Theekshana is ranked 10th: Wanindu is also ranked 8th in the ICC T20 All Rounders Rankings.

Political sources say that the Ceylon Labor Congress has expressed its willingness to join the government.

Accordingly, it is stated that the Secretary General of Ceylon Labor Congress Jeevan Thondaman has informed President Ranil Wickramasinghe that his party has expressed interest in getting a cabinet minister position.

However, sources said that he has informed that the final decision on joining the government will be made depending on which cabinet minister position his party gets.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to monitor the progress of the passengers of Sri Lankan origin who were rescued and brought to the Port of Vung Tau in Viet Nam on 08 November 2022.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Sri Lanka Navy that they had received information about a vessel carrying approximately 303 persons believed to be Sri Lankans which was in distress in the waters between the Philippines and Viet Nam on 07 November 2022. The Sri Lanka Navy, having contacted the vessel, informed that the crew had abandoned the vessel with the passengers onboard.

On the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Missions in the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam together with the regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers (MRCC) based in Singapore, the rescue efforts were coordinated.

Subsequently, the Japanese-flagged vessel, “Helios Leader”, having been contacted by the Singapore MRCC, rescued the passengers from the distressed vessel. The passengers were handed over to Viet Nam authorities at Vung Tau Port in South Viet Nam.

The screening of the passengers will be done by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in coordination with the Viet Nam authorities and the Sri Lanka Embassy in Viet Nam.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to work closely with the Sri Lanka Missions in the Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam and IOM for early repatriation, once the screening process to ascertain their nationality and other formalities are completed.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo

09 November,  2022

Sagara Kariyawasam, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, says that Basil Rajapaksa will remove his dual citizenship and run for elections if necessary.

Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and Chief of Staff of the President Sagala Ratnayake recalled that Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank (WB) Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka was amazed by the action policy and the vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe which was revealed during their meeting recently.

The WB Country Director also expressed his willingness to support President Wickremesinghe’s vision. “The president’s vision for the country includes some measures that go beyond what the IMF or WB has stipulated. His vision is actually far ahead than this sphere,” Ratnayake said.

He emphasized the importance of getting everyone together to work hard on developing the road map and sticking to the timelines to get the best final report at the end of the next two weeks.

He also said that this is the best opportunity for the country to stabilize economically, to have a solid policy framework and to go into the road map that is needed. “As a country, we have that potential and request everyone to make maximum use of it,” Ratnayake added.

Rathnayake made these remarks while speaking at the World Bank Budget support and Development Policy Operation (DPO) Preparatory Mission kick-off meeting between the government officials and the members of the World Bank which took place yesterday morning (Nov. 08) at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe.

The discussed development policy operations, which provide direct budget support to governments for policy and institutional reforms, are aimed at achieving a set of specific development results.

These operations were designed under three pillars such as transforming Economic governance, enhancing growth & competitiveness and protecting the poor and vulnerable to provide rapid financial assistance to allow Sri Lanka to deal with actual or anticipated development financing requirements.

Lengthy discussions were held with the WB team on improving debt management and transparency, improving fiscal oversight, improving tax administration policy, increasing public procurement transparency and value for money, severing the sovereign-financial sector nexus, improving stewardship of the financial sector and reducing systemic risk.

They also focused on reforming and enhancing oversights of SOEs, reducing the anti-export bias of national tariff policy and elite capture, eliminating barriers to foreign investment, making energy and transport sector less dependent on imported fuels and more climate-friendly, and strengthening social protection institutions, delivery systems, and targeting.

Sri Lanka has temporarily suspended accepting applications for passports, said the country’s Department of Immigration and Emigration as the economic crisis continues to tighten its grip on the island nation.

The acceptance of passport applications is halted due to a result of computer system malfunction.

As per the report, the services were affected on Tuesday due to the breakdown in the computer system of the Immigration and Emigration Department.

The Department had appealed to the people to not visit the head office of the Sri Lankan Department of Immigration and Emigration for non-essential services considering the breakdown.

The Department announced that it has suspended accepting applications for passports as the country’s finance minister said that Colombo will have to endure the worst economic crisis and warned of an imminent cash crunch.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration says that the issuance of passports has temporarily been suspended due to a breakdown in the computer system for the third time this year.

Asimilar break down in the computer system was reported in May this year sparking public protests as the large number of people had been asked to visit the passport office some other day.

Accordingly, the relevant department announces that it has suspended issuing passports via all regional offices including the Head Office of the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration has suspended accepting applications for passports until the system is restored.

As a result of this, a heated situation had reportedly occurred in front of the Immigration Department this afternoon as a large number of people who had arrived to obtain their passports had voiced their protest.

However, the officials of the department and police officers had then arrived and explained the situation and sent them away.

The health department says that a second case of Monkeypox has been reported from Sri Lanka.

He is also a person who came to this country from the state of Dubai and it is said that he has been hospitalized.

The first case of monkey fever in Sri Lanka was reported on November 4.