Showers or thundershowers will occur over most parts of the island during the afternoon or night. Heavy showers about 100 mm can be expected at some places, said the Department of Meteorology in a statement today (08).
Showers will occur in Eastern province and in Polonnaruwa and Mullaitivu districts during the morning.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by temporary localised strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Marine Weather:
Condition of Rain:
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in the sea areas around the island.
Winds:
Winds will be North-easterly or variable in direction. Wind speed will be (20-30) kmph. Wind speed may increase up to 40 kmph at times in the sea areas off the coast extending from Kankasanturai to Colombo via Mannar and Puttalam.
State of Sea:
The sea areas off the coast extending from Kankasanturai to Colombo via Mannar and Puttalam will be fairly rough at times. The other sea areas around the island will be slight. Temporarily strong gusty winds and very rough seas can be expected during thundershowers.
President Wickremesinghe proposes meeting of Agriculture Ministers of all countries to evaluate the food requirements over the next two years.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe urged the Secretary-General of the UN and Egypt, as the head of the COP27, to summon a meeting of all Ministers of Agriculture of all the countries to assess the food requirements of 2023 and 2024 and submit a report on the food situation. The President also emphasized the need on working closely with the multilaterals, sources of funding and the need to formulate a sustainable debt relief plan immediately to ensure the global food security.
The President further stated that it is essential to finalize this plan by February 2023 and should be implemented by the end of the 1st quarter of 2023, if not the damage caused to the political and social structures of countries will be irreparable. He also highlighted the urgent need of compiling a medium-term plan to ensure global food security At COP28.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these remarks while participating at the Round Table discussion on “Food Security” at the ongoing COP-27 Conference on Climate Change, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The full text is as follows:
“There are nearly one billion people who are suffering from hunger today, and according to the IMF, over 300 million people’s livelihoods are in danger. Countries affected fall into two categories,
1. Countries where food is no longer available. These countries either have no means to buy the food due to rising costs or are unable to produce their own food.
2. Countries which traditionally had an adequate food supply but now find these sources of food out of reach due to rising costs.
There was a time when Sri Lanka had no fertilizer and was unable to produce our own food. However, the successful food security program is a combined mechanism for food security and the recently accessible fertilizer stocks that was made possible thanks to the international community. Nevertheless, there is a sizeable group who do not have the economic resources to access food.
All must ensure that food is made available to countries that fall within these two categories. Secondly, they require financial assistance to provide food for their populations.
Common to both categories is the rising levels of debt servicing. The increasing cost of debt has meant that it is more difficult for the developing countries to ensure affordable food for the total population.
The IMF estimate that the food and fertilizer price shock, coupled with the rising costs of debt servicing, will add US $9bn to the food import bills of the 48 worst affected countries. This means that a resolution to the debt crisis is needed to tackle both these categories.
Currently we are seeing that there is no overall plan to address this situation, and no focal point. The UN together with COP and the FAO, the World Food Program, the World Bank, and the IMF, must form that focal point.
I urge the Secretary-General of the UN and Egypt, as the head of the COP27, to call a meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of all countries to assess the food requirements of 2023 and 2024 and submit a report on the food position. Working together with the multilaterals, sources of funding and a sustainable debt relief plan must be formulated. It is essential that this plan is finalized by February 2023 and taken up for implementation by the end of the 1st quarter of 2023.
We must act fast; otherwise, the damage caused to the political and social structures of countries will be irreparable. At COP28, it is of utmost importance that we compile a medium-term plan to ensure global food security.”
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been able to attract the attention of the countries world wide when he urged the Secretary-General of the UN and Egypt, as the head of the COP27, to summon a meeting of all Ministers of Agriculture of all the countries to assess the food requirements of 2023 and 2024 and submit a report on the food situation.
The President also emphasized the need on working closely with the multilaterals, sources of funding and the need to formulate a sustainable debt relief plan immediately to ensure the global food security.
Sri Lankan President also met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a short while ago, on the sidelines of COP27 in Egypt and exchanged views on bilateral relations of both countries and he has also held discussions with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and Environment, Head of the delegation from the Republic of Korea, Na Kyung-Won at COP27 the President’s Media Division reported
The President left the island for Egypt on Monday (06) to attend the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) being held in Sharm el-Sheikh.
However in an unexpected development, Maldives Parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed has come under fire for representing Sri Lanka at COP27, the UN’s climate change summit which kicked off Sunday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh.
Nasheed left the Maldives on Friday morning for the COP27 summit. Regarding his visit, the parliament issued a statement the same day stating that he will attend COP27 as a representative of the Sri Lankan national delegation.
He came under severe critisim of Maldives parliamentarians and interested parties in that country. However his participation at the summit as member of Sri Lankan delegation came as surprise for Sri Lankans.
One of the first to criticise Nasheed was former Attorney General Dr Mohamed Munawwar. He questioned Nasheed’s representation of another country while being paid by the people of Maldives as speaker.“Where’s the country? What about being loyal to the state?,” Munawwar said in a tweet.
Munawwar’s comments were echoed by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Twitter. Former Attorney General Diyana Saeed also defended the tweet and said Munawwar’s remarks were not personal.
“It’s a matter with legal burden, it’s actually a legit issue,” said Diyana, the first attorney general of Nasheed’s government. As justification, she cited Articles 73 and 75 of the Constitution.
“In view of what these two articles say, the question is whether this is permissible (the Speaker of the parliament representing another country),” Diyana said in a statement.
Addu Maradhoo MP Mohamed Shareef also said that the constitution states that citizens of another country cannot be a member of the Maldives’ parliament for certain reasons.
One of the reasons, he said, was to reduce the space for the interests of another country to take precedence over the interests of Maldives. Shareef believes that Nasheed’s conduct is against the spirit of the constitution.
Some also questioned whether the state had spent any money on Nasheed’s visit. Those who expressed their views said it needed to be cleared, and that they did not approve of any budgetary expenditure on Nasheed’s visit to represent another country.
Parliament’s Communications Director Hassan Ziyau said that all expenses of Nasheed’s trip are taken care of by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a group of countries most affected by climate change.
Responding to the criticism, Nasheed’s supporters said that environmental issues are related to humanity as a whole and it is not a problem for Nasheed to represent and advocate for another country in such a humanitarian matter. Those who expressed such views said the Maldives and Sri Lanka share the same policy on climate issues.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe meets US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate- John Kerry, UK PM Rishi Sunak and President of Slovenia Borut Pahor, at COP27 in Egypt.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe requests UN Secretary General and the Egyptian President to convene a meeting of Agriculture Ministers of all countries to assess food needs for the next 2 years and submit a report to ensure food security.
Elections Commission Chairman S G Punchihewa says Rs.10 bn has been allocated for the EC in the budget: asserts EC has no financial issue to hold LG polls soon.
Top Cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka denies committing offences he is charged with: Sydney Police confiscate his passport: legal proceedings likely to take 10-12 months: several legal watchers say the cricketer has been “set up”.
CB data shows Sri Lanka’s tourism earnings in the first 10 months of 2022 surpassed USD 1 bn: forex reserves drop to USD 1.7 bn by end October.
Navy conducts operation in coordination with the Police and Narcotic Bureau: intercepts local fishing trawler carrying over 331kg of heroin and apprehends 6 suspects.
Opposition parties allege the National Delimitation Committee chaired by former Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya is a ploy by Government to postpone Local Government elections: Deshapriya refuses to comment on the matter.
New Bill is to be introduced to expedite recovery of premises under lease agreements and regulate collection of arrears of lease rentals.
Party leaders to meet today re. appointing members to the Constitutional Council established under the newly passed 21st Amendment: Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to preside.
Sri Lanka held a productive meeting with its bilateral creditors, which include India and China, on Thursday as the country looks to restructure its debt and carve a path out of its worst financial crisis in decades.
As at end-June 2022, Sri Lanka’s total public debt was US$ equiv. 79.9bn including arrears. The end-June 2022 foreign and local currency stock (including arrears) of Central Government debt, guaranteed SOEs loans and CBSL debt, amounted to $ 70.1bn, $ 6.6bn and $ 3.2bn, respectively.
It also reported that the country’s total debt was US $ 36 billion at the end of 2021. Of this, Sri Lanka owes $ 7.1 billion to China, which is 20% percent of its debt.
The total public debt, which was 115.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of December 2021, has now gone up to 143.7% of GDP by end-June 2022. Of this, the bilateral debt has climbed from 12.7% of GDP to 20.4% of GDP.
Sri Lanka held a “productive” second round of crucial talks with its bilateral creditors, the finance ministry said on Thursday, as the crisis-hit island nation attempts to get assurances on debt restructuring from them to close a deal with the IMF.
It has now engaged with all its official bilateral creditors as well as International Financing Institutions (IFIs) with a view to obtain financing assurances for debt restructuring, Finance Ministry sources revealed.
In practice, financing assurances from official bilateral creditors are obtained once each bilateral creditor (or all official bilateral creditors collectively) officially confirms its (or their) commitment to grant Sri Lanka a debt treatment compatible with the macroeconomic and debt sustainability frameworks supporting the IMF programme.
In order obtain these creditors consent and assurances as soon as possible the Finance Ministry has made a virtual investor Presentation on October 23 2022 with 637 registered attendees and it enabled the Sri Lankan Authorities (the “Authorities” or “we”) to provide an update on the ongoing process and the next steps related to the engagement with the IMF and the creditors.
Continuing this process Sri Lankan authorities held a virtual meeting with Sri Lanka’s official creditors on Thursday (3). The meeting was chaired by the Secretary to the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance, K M Mahinda Siriwardana, and the Governor of the Central Bank P. Nandalal Weerasinghe.
Addressing the meeting State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe said that Sri Lanka is at a critical stage, and we are seeking IMF program approval as soon as possible to restore macroeconomic stability.
Since the IMF Staff Level Agreement (“SLA”) is still pending, the government authorities have intensified their efforts to complete the prior actions agreed with IMF staff and to obtain bilateral creditors’ financing assurances, to ensure that Sri Lanka’s IMF program can be formally adopted by the IMF Board in the targeted timeframe before mid-December 2022.
However Sri Lanka is likely to miss the December deadline for securing an IMF loan, as the main bilateral debtor, China, was involved in the 20th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Congress, and had little time for holding debt restructuring talks with Sri Lanka government.
The next meeting of the IMF Executive Board is in March 2023 and therefore the consent of the Board is expected in that meeting.
The IMF programme and economic reform agenda will reconstitute Sri Lanka’s financial buffers, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe.said adding that the official creditors have been given an opportunity to discuss Sri Lanka’s current financial position and progress on reforms.
Regarding prior actions, the Authorities are working hand in hand with IMF staff to ensure that all prior actions are satisfied as soon as possible.
Sri Lanka is currently on track to complete all prior actions before yearend. Prior actions included parliament approval of a revised 2022 budget, revenue measures to support fiscal consolidation and annual budget for 2023 in line with the IMF programme
The social media platform’s new owner issued the warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names – not their account names – to “Elon Musk” in reaction to the billionaire’s decision to offer verified accounts to all comers for $8 month.
Elon Musk says Twitter will permanently suspend any account that impersonates another – unless it clearly states it is a “parody”.
The social media platform’s new owner issued the warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names – not their account names – to “Elon Musk” in reaction to the billionaire’s decision to offer verified accounts to all users for $8 month.
Comedian Kathy Griffin had her account suspended on Sunday for switching her display name to Musk’s.
Actor Valerie Bertinelli did the same before switching it back to her real name. But first, she posted a series of tweets in support of Democratic candidates.
Comedian Sarah Silverman also appeared to have her account locked as she shared a screenshot of her Twitter page with the display name “Sarah K Silverman”.
Musk said Twitter previously issued a warning before suspension, but as the social media giant is rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning as well as “no exceptions.”
“This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue,” Musk said, adding any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.
On Saturday Twitter updated its app in Apple’s App Store to begin charging $8 for sought-after blue check verification marks, in Musk’s first major revision of the social media platform.
Tesla Inc boss Musk, who also will serve as chief executive of Twitter, last month said the social media platform will be forming a content moderation council with “widely diverse viewpoints”.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he added.
On the topic of banned accounts, Musk last week said they will not be allowed back onto Twitter until the social media platform has “a clear process for doing so.”
Creating such a process would take at least a few more weeks, Musk had tweeted, giving more clarity about the potential return of Twitter’s most famous banned user, former US President Donald Trump.
Promotion of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry commenced at the World Travel Market (WTM) today (07), and its debut event was held at EXCEL London, London, UK.
Organised by the Sri Lanka Tourism Board, the SL tourism promotion event was attended by many people around the world and it was noteworthy that the Princess of the Royal Family of Thailand also attended the event.
LNW Media Coverage for SL Tourism Promotion at EXCEL LONDON below;
The Government will be accelerating the implementation of a trade adjustment program for local industrialists to match the competitiveness of international trade by setting policy priorities in relation to international trade.
The aim is to expedite free trade agreement negotiations with foreign countries specially FTA’S with China and India to facilitate the country’s debt restructuring initiative.
Accordingly, while further penetrating into the main export markets of USA and Europe, the government is currently engaged in an effort to establish comprehensive free trade agreements targeting large and emerging economies in order increase exports.
For this purpose, the government has taken steps to establish a National Trade Negotiation Committee (NTNC) .
The main task of this committee is to revive the negotiations of free trade agreements with strategic importance to India, China and Thailand markets where large foreign direct investment and export potential is prevalent and local industries affected by the economic crisis can obtain capital inputs, raw materials and intermediate goods at a lower cost.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the implementation of a trade adjustment program for local industrialists to match the competitiveness of international trade by setting policy priorities in relation to international trade, the President’s Media Division reported.
The President emphasized on the need to gradually liberalize the service sector to attract Foreign Direct Investment into the country and to take steps to gain membership in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these remarks during his meeting with the officers of the National Trade Negotiations Committee at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday (04).
The President instructed the officers at length about free trade negotiations as well as the future outlook of international trade and on aligning policy priorities in this regard.
He further stated that in parallel to the expansion of international trade activities, the government will implement a Trade Adjustment Program to support the local industries to further adjust with competition.
Access to regional and global supply chains and re-engagement with the global economy to enhance export and export-oriented foreign direct investment is an element of the government’s economic reform program to revitalize the domestic economy.
The Secretary to the President and the Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Food Security as well as officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General’s Department, the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce and senior officials from the line Ministries and several others attended this meeting.
The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to increase the amount of urea fertilizer released for the first shift to 50 kg per hectare.
Taking into consideration a request made by the farmers’ representatives, the Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, Mahinda Amaraweera, has instructed the Secretary of the Ministry, Rohana Pushpakumara, to take action in this regard.
Earlier, only 40 kg of urea fertilizer was to be given per hectare.
The minister emphasized that steps will be taken to issue the related circular next Tuesday.
The European Union (EU) says it stands with Sri Lanka in its efforts to ensure everyone has access to justice.
Lars Bredal, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives stated that “The EU stands with Sri Lanka in its efforts to ensure everyone has access to justice.
As digitalization plays an increasingly important role in all facets of modern society, it is relevant to the functioning of the justice system, as it allows for improved access and delivery of justice services.
He expressed the hope that the provision of this equipment will be instrumental in facilitating and strengthening the work of the officers of the Mediation Boards Commission (MBC).
He was speaking at the event of enhancing the administrative functions of the Development Officers (Mediation) across the island.
The EU funded ‘Supporting Effective Dispute Resolution (SEDR)’, project amplified its support to the Mediation Boards Commission (MBC) through the provision of 70 laptops to enhance the administrative functions of the Development Officers (Mediation) across the island.
The event was graced by several dignitaries – Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Minister of Justice, Priyanath Perera, Secretary Mediation Boards Commission, Justice Yapa, Chairperson Mediation Boards Commission, Commissioners of the Mediation Boards Commission, Lars Bredal, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and Maarya Rehman, Country Director British Council Sri Lanka.
SEDR is a four-year access to justice project implemented by the British Council, in partnership with The Asia Foundation (TAF), and funded by the European Union (EU). The EUR 7 million project is part of the EU’s overarching STRIDE (Strengthening Transformation, Reconciliation and Inclusive Democratic Engagement) Programme in Sri Lanka.
SEDR’s Result Area 4 includes an activity to support the administrative functioning of mediation boards through the provision of IT equipment. This is with the objective of supporting newly appointed Development Officers collate data.
Under SEDR’s Result Area 1, significant work has already been done on enhancing the MBC’s website and building a mediation database to help the MBC function more seamlessly and to be able to monitor progress.
The website will help with public awareness and will increase much needed access to mediation, which is more cost efficient and sustainable when compared with litigation.
An ICT Needs Assessment survey of 235 MBC staff, including the new cadre of Development Officers (Dos) – Mediation – was completed in the second half of 2021, and a training needs analysis was also done prior by a consultant hired by SEDR. The scope and focus of the ICT equipment to be procured was made with agreement between the MBC, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and SEDR joint committee being that the best option was the provision of 70 laptops.
The British Council IT team completed the task of installing software (Windows10) onto these laptops, which also all come with SEDR-branding and carrier bags.
As part of the distribution process of these laptops, SEDR will work in close liaison with the MBC and MOJ to design and present an online basic orientation training session, to ensure the 70 new users are enabled to obtain maximum benefit from both the new ICT hard and software. SEDR will furthermore support an additional online training session for new users, specifically focussing on how best to use the new equipment as part of the MBC’s new online mediation database/platform.
